A Story So Bizarre
by AndroidSister
Summary: (Future Changes 'verse) During his imprisonment in Thor 2, Loki forms an unexpected bond with a mysterious and powerful consciousness, and is drawn into a conflict for the survival or damnation of not just one, but two different space-time continuums in which nothing is truly what seems.(An almost-prequel/sequel to the other fics but you don't need to have read 'em to get this)
1. It starts with something small

**A Story So Bizarre...**

Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, X Men First Class or Thor. They are Marvel's property. I just write about the characters.

A/N: Hello again to those of you coming to this from 'And That's When Things Get Complicated' and a warm welcome to those who haven't. This is in fact the third story/volume in my 'Future Changes' trilogy despite the new setting&characters, but I don't think that you necessarily have to have read both the previous volumes to understand this(it would still help). This story will include themes of time travel, post apocalyptic/futuristic wartime earth, and will be partially focused on issues of identity, self, and cultural prejudices, as well as continuing other previous themes. It will also include mild slash(Charles/Erik) and an intersex Loki.

WARNINGS: This story will contain violence, abuse, torture(mostly retrospective) and depictions of PTSD. I will mark the chapters with more specific warnings where necessary.

**Chapter One: It starts with something small**

Loki lay on the cot in his brightly lit cell, tossing an empty drinking cup into the air and catching it with his right hand. His left, he kept tucked casually behind his head as a more comfortable pillow. The plate of food he'd been provided, rested untouched on the little table next to his bed. Beside it, a tome that his mother had browbeaten the Allfather into allowing him, languished. Loki's bitterness and carefully-masked pain over their separation for what very well could be the rest of his life was tempered only by the knowledge of the wrath Odin had no doubt incurred by passing such a ruling. After all, as dysfunctional and downright twisted as his childhood had been, Loki had always known that there was nothing in all of Yggdrasil that was more precious to Frigga than her children. Besides that, adopted or not, Loki had inferred long ago that he was her favorite. That thought brought the faintest of smiles to his lips- only for it to fall away before it could completely form when a scuffle between two of the incoming prisoners reminded him of his predicament. He kept his expression composed, not reacting in the slightest to the catcalls that two nasty-looking marauders directed at him before they were shoved onward by one of the more conscientious guards.

Loki was still technically a prince, after all, and as far as the people of Asgard knew, his adoptive-brother Thor might still take issue with anyone mistreating him too much. Not that that protection would hold much longer; no one had visited him yet... Well, Fandral had actually dropped by to hover outside the Trickster's cell and talk at him two weeks into his captivity, but Fandral didn't count.

There was a soft skittering sound, probably from a small stone being kicked farther in through the walkway. At the same time that innocuous detail caught his attention, a frigid charge rolled through the atmosphere of the cell-block. The familiarity of it sent a shiver down Loki's spine. There was a strong and entirely-unwelcome sense of déja-vu spreading through him. He sat up to study the last guard and the prisoners as they moved out of sight. They shrugged off the chill; the guard absently readjusted his cape, but that was all. _You see? It's nothing, _Loki chided himself, trying to get control of his breathing._ Stop being childish. You can't let them see!_

Loki forced down the lingering traces of fear and forced himself to take a few slower, deeper breaths, not allowing his hands to tremble anymore. He picked up the textbook from his bedside table and resumed at the ribbon-marked page. Then he frowned and closed the book, looking over at the tiny, dodecahedral prism that was lying innocently on the floor of his cell. _How did that get there?_ He considered getting up to inspect it, but decided that he'd rather just ignore it. Why should he care? _Because you know nothing of its purpose, _a voice in the back of his mind supplied_. _He began to reread the passage he'd been trying to finish. _It could be a danger to you,_ the voice of his subconscious insisted. For some reason, it sounded a lot like Thor. _Exactly, _he thought rebelliously, Not. Looking. At. The Prism. Then he wondered if this internal argument indicated that he was going mad._ I am probably __already__ a bit mad,_ he decided and went back to studying.

This text was mainly about the dynamics of defensive energy manipulation. _But why is it here? _He'd bypassed the section on Fire Weaving for the time being in order to avoid depression, and was now halfway through a very interesting section on bending light (counter-intuitively referred to in the chapter as Shadow Dancing). _How did it get here? __Stop it!_ Within the next five minutes, Loki was stubbornly engrossed in his reading, so much so that he didn't even notice the soft sound of footsteps nearing his cell.

"It's you!" said the therefore-unexpected female voice from just outside the force-field, causing him to twitch in surprise and snap his laser-like gaze to the speaker's face. At least he'd managed to stop himself from a complete flinch. "Oh. Wow! Did I startle you?" _Damn! She __did__ notice. Wait, is that a mortal?_ Loki looked the petite woman over through narrowed eyes, before clapping his book shut and sitting up on his cot to face her.

"You don't belong here," he stated, keeping his tone as bland as his expression.

"I know. It's just... Um, actually, I sort of-" The woman cut short her fumbling attempts at a response and straightened her posture, seeming to come to some sort of conclusion. "Hold on. You're Loki, aren't you?" she more-stated-than-asked.

Loki looked her up and down, mentally calculating the foolish mortal's chance of surviving down in the cell-block unaccompanied, in contrast with the unlikelihood of the guards heeding his call. To use a Midgardian phrase, she was 'totally screwed'.

"The closest guards are stationed down the hall to your left. Good luck explaining your presence here," Loki informed her with an air of detachment, lying back down and opening his book for the third time in the past five minutes.

"You _are _Loki! You're just the way your brother described you." The woman gasped and took a hasty step back when he leapt to his feet to stare her down from the opposite side of the barrier.

"What did you say?" Loki snapped, still staring, unblinking, into her wide brown eyes.

"Oh, well. _Not_ so concerned I guess," she muttered to herself as though amending some internal commentary. "Okay. That makes sense." She cleared her throat and continued at a more audible volume, "Yeah. Hi, I'm Jane Foster. I'm a friend of Thor's from, um, from _Midgard_?"

Loki relaxed, despite himself, upon hearing her introduction. He had to give the girl credit, she had recovered from her shock with admirable speed.

"Oh good; you've heard of me. Listen, I was just with your mother - Queen Frigga - a second ago, and then I was... suddenly here. So if you-" Jane let out a shriek and ducked as a resounding boom echoed through the chamber. A few scattered bits of rock and shrapnel flew past Jane. "Ohmygod!"

Loki scowled, trying to get a glimpse at what was going on further into the dungeon, "Was that..."

"An explosion?" Jane breathed with an enviable amount of composure. "Yes. It was."

He saw Jane's eyes widen. Then she squeezed them shut, turning her face sharply away from the events on her right. A chorus of frightened shouts and screams rang out immediately after, followed by the sound of massive, stomping feet marching closer from the point of the blast. Jane hesitantly blinked her eyes open again as a strange, yellow glow began to build from the same direction.

"Oh, no..." She lamented, sounding resigned to whatever fate she saw coming for them out of that unnatural light.

"Dr. Foster-" Loki began, but stopped when Jane dropped into a crouch on the steps between them, throwing her arms up to shield her head in reaction to the latest explosion. Loki knelt down next to her, and instructed simply, "Hide."

"Where?!" Jane whispered sharply, and Loki gave her a flat look before jerking his head in the direction that she should already be running. _Honestly, must I do everything?_ he thought to himself, stepping back into the illusion he'd just created.

A hulking beast of a man with, not just too many horns, but tusks, and a complexion like weathered stone – who was presumably the cause of this mess – finished busting out other prisoners and came to a halt in front of Loki's cell. The sounds of the escaping prisoners faded into an eerie silence. Loki's likeness stepped forward as the stranger stepped up to the barrier, scrutinizing him from the spot that Jane had vacated scant seconds ago. The warrior was of a species that Loki had never seen before (which was intriguing in itself) and exuded an aura of raw energy so potent that it was starting to make Loki's eyes water in such close proximity.

He wondered how a living thing could stand to contain it. The alien leaned in, mere inches away from the pane of golden charge separating them; Loki heard a hastily-smothered gasp from Jane's hiding spot, and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. _Honestly, Woman! It's only threatening __me__._ The alien's glowing eyes studied his double's face before they locked gazes. The slightest smirk adorned the projection's lips while they stared each other down. Then without a word, the creature turned away towards the stairs, leaving Loki's prison untouched. Loki heard Jane begin to fidget in her hiding place. The normally diminutive sound was dangerously amplified in the quiet of the dungeon.

"You might want to take the stairs to the left," Loki's image called, drowning out the sounds of rustling fabric. To her credit, Jane stilled before the sentence was finished to avoid being noticed. The alien turned back to regard Loki's image thoughtfully before moving on towards whatever destination he had beyond the dungeon. Odds were that Thor was going to kill the beast anyway. It was none of Loki's business.

After the last echoes of the creature's footfalls disappeared into the distance, Jane carefully crept out of her hiding place, partially obscured behind the projected oak chest that had blossomed into existence along with Loki's double.

"I can't believe that worked! _How_ did that work?" Jane inquired, her dark eyes scrutinizing every inch of Loki's cell.

"It's a simple enough trick," Loki responded. The extra bite added to the word 'trick' did not go unnoticed by the astrophysicist. Her gaze flickered up to his projection's face before she looked away, still searching for something beyond her perception.

"Well, thank you. I know that you had no reason to help me..." Jane said sincerely, gazing into what to her must appear to be empty space, with an earnest expression. Loki knew that it was mere coincidence that it was the place where he was sitting. "I'm not sure why you did, but... Thank you."

Loki looked sharply away. She shouldn't be thanking him. Loki himself didn't know why he'd done it. It was a pointless act, delaying the inevitable. _I shouldn't- I __don't__ care._

Jane turned away as if to leave, but hesitated after only two steps and turned back.

"I was with Frigg-"

"So I've heard," Loki affirmed a little too hastily, and now she was scrutinizing his image again.

"I'll give her your love, okay?" Jane offered with a wry little half-smile.

"I doubt that the Allfather would approve of your conferring with me," Loki dismissed.

"I don't think he approves of me either," Jane replied, drawing a startled glance from the Trickster. "You're probably right."

After the silence began to stretch too long, Loki responded in the most noncommittal way possible: "A riot is bound to start." And with that, his double turned and went back to his cot to resume reading, signaling an end to their conversation. To his relief, Dr. Foster got the message and scampered away, presumably to find Thor or Frigga. Loki's relief didn't last. His eyes were unwillingly drawn to the prism lying in the far corner of his cell. It seemed to beckon to him from the edge of his awareness, leaving a faint impression of safety and peace, and oddly...Assam tea. Loki glared accusingly at the alien object, forcing away all traces of the calm that it seemed to coax him into. The crystal had appeared in synchronicity with Dr. Foster's inexplicable appearance, and Loki had never been one to believe in coincidences.

* * *

Jane ran through the palace halls as they rapidly filled with bustling guards, soldiers and fleeing servants. It was beginning to get too dangerous for the fragile human to continue pushing through the mass of larger and much sturdier alien bodies. Jane let out a shriek as she was knocked aside by a careless servant running in the opposite direction, to bounce off the back of a soldier, landing on all fours amidst the sea of running legs. There was a fleeting moment in which Jane reflected that she'd lived through a whole hell of lot to simply be trampled to death. Before that could happen however, a pair of strong, slender arms scooped her up and bundled her out of harm's way.

"Jane Foster! What are you doing out here?" asked a very concerned Lady Sif as she set the smaller woman back on her feet. "I thought that you were with Queen Frigga."

"I _was_, but then I wasn't. I-" Jane began, cutting herself off at the sight of Sif's perplexed expression. "You now what? That's not important right now. Do you know where she is? Or Thor? I need to get back."

"Of course," Sif agreed, grabbing Jane's hand in a firm grip and leading her back into the flow of traffic. "Keep close to me."

* * *

Sure enough, a riot had broken out down in the dungeon. Warriors had charged into the fray by now, and Loki was fairly certain that he'd heard Fandral's voice coming from somewhere close by. Loki figured that Thor's other friends were probably around here too, if not the Crowned Prince himself.

"Now, I will give you a chance to surrender..." a booming voice announced cockily from the entryway a few paces behind Loki's current perch. _Ah, there he is._ The Trickster stifled a smirk at the sound of a prisoner smashing something over his brother's armored shoulders in response, and instead, turned to the next page in his textbook and continued to read.

He was almost completely ensnared by the latest chapter, when a burly, somewhat-stunned prisoner flew into the force-field inches from his face. The barrier flashed and issued a loud crackling sound. Loki looked up from his book to glare at his clueless brother for breaking his concentration, then shifted his attention to Fandral, who had darted over to knock the stunned prisoner unconscious.

"So sorry to disturb you, Milord," the blond remarked playfully. The lightheartedness of it startled Loki right out of his glare. He blinked incredulously at his almost-sort-of-childhood-friend. Fandral smirked and winked at him before whirling back into the chaos and out of sight. Loki shook himself and tried to recall which passage he'd been on. _I should not be __so__ surprised. Fandral never did hold grudges._

* * *

Frigga sealed the doors to her chambers behind her and turned away to address her son's mortal love.

"This will not hold them at bay for long," the Queen warned, crossing the room to join Jane at the door to the bedroom. "You have something urgent that you wish to tell me."

"There's something else going on. It isn't just the aether anymore. At least, I don't think it is." Jane explained, still a little breathless from their run in a way that Frigga was entirely not. _Wow. No wonder the Vikings thought that these people were gods._

"Indeed," Frigga agreed. "Your disappearance... Where did you vanish to?"

"The dungeon. I popped up in the cell block where Loki's being kept," Jane explained hastily, adding as an afterthought "He loves you, by the way- Not that I was the one who told you. Anyway! It's lucky that I did, because I'm not sure that any other prisoner would've been so willing to help me hide."

Frigga's fleeting amusement at the covert message shifted into an inquisitive arch of her brow upon hearing of her youngest son's unprompted act of kindness.

"I know. It surprised me too, but that's not all. The explosion down there came from one of the cells. There was this big guy with these glowing, red eyes, and he-" Jane jumped at the sound of someone trying to blast their way through the doors.

"Later," Frigga told her firmly, ushering her back towards the bedroom. "Now. You will do exactly as I tell you."

* * *

Loki's head jerked up to watch Lady Sif belatedly enter the fight, looking annoyed and impatient. He didn't care exactly, but it was strange for her to miss so much of the action. After all, by this point, half of the mob had already been dealt with in one way or another.

"Lady Sif! I had begun to fear that you might miss all of the fun!" Thor called to her.

Loki resisted the sudden, overpowering urge to face-palm at his idiotic- _No. Just Thor. We are __not__ related, _he consoled himself. It was at that point that Sif noticed him watching her, which was sort of unfortunate given the smirk he happened to have on his face.

She glared daggers at him.

He batted his eyelashes at her, just because. Hey, if she was going to be cross with him, he might as well earn it.

"Piss off!" Sif growled and Loki's smirk grew more genuine. It was also just fun to mess with Sif, especially when there was a heavily-reinforced barrier between the two of them. Loki decided to give up on his attempts at reading and just enjoy the show. He reclined against the edge of the sill and watched the chaos unfolding around him, letting his mind sort through the events of the day. It was actually strangely comforting. Perhaps it was due to the familiarity of the situation. ...It wascomforting, until he discovered that his left hand was toying with the mysterious prism without his approval. And there was that energy emitting from the stone again, warm and inviting, as if it were beckoning to him.

Loki swallowed, distrustful of the perceived falsehood of the soothing welcome, and shoved the offending object into his sleeve. The chill in his veins increased; he had intended to hurl the crystal away across the room. There wasn't anything that he could do about it now without risking drawing unwanted attention, so he forced himself to go back to observing the others. The rioters were wearing down now, and it wasn't long before the last stragglers were subdued. Mostly by Lady Sif, who Loki suspected to be trying to prove a point.

She kept staring in his direction while knocking people out and he couldn't help but find it a bit unsettling. Fandral seemed to have caught on as well and was giving her a wide berth just in case he drew her ire by accident. Thor was characteristically oblivious, but he was immune anyway, going more or less unnoticed even when he left the others to deal with the clean up before the battle was technically over. _Wait. Why is he leaving?_

* * *

Frigga turned to face the doors as they were blown open and Malekith strode into her rooms, accompanied by the creature from the dungeons that Jane had described to her. Frigga threw out a protective arm, warning the frightened woman to keep back, and Malekith gave her a patronizing look.

"I am here to reclaim what is rightfully mine," Malekith declared, stalking forwards. "You would do best to keep out of my way."

"I will not," Frigga returned simply. She drew her broadsword when the warrior from the dungeons moved to strike her, and the two locked in battle while his commander stood impatiently to one side with his eyes locked on Jane's trembling form. She tried to ignore him as much as possible, instead watching Frigga's movements intently.

Jane had this horrible feeling in the back of her mind, that she already knew how this would end. _Frigga is going to be stabbed in the side._ She didn't know how. She just knew that it was going to happen. It was as though she were watching an old story that she'd heard a million times before, come to life, and she wanted to stop it. _But __how__ can I know? _The warrior managed to get in a good punch, and swept Frigga's sword out of her hands.

"Wait. Hold her," Malekith ordered, and the warrior grabbed the Queen, spinning her around so that he could hold both her arms pinned to her chest from behind. Malekith turned and prowled towards Jane, openly amused by his prey's attempts at escape, trapping the frightened mortal against the wall, a stone pillar blocking off the inner doorway.

_It's going to happen soon. I know it! I know it! __How can I know it?!_Jane fretted, in a near panic.

Malekith reached out, eager to claim his prize, only for his leer to morph into a furious grimace when she melted away in a flicker of warm golden light. "You!" he accused, rounding on Frigga.

The Queen regarded him with an expression of grim defiance. "I."

"Time travel_..." _Jane breathed, barely even loud enough to be called a whisper. An accented voice drifted through her mind like a fragment of a half-remembered dream. _'Listen to me very carefully...'_ "Charles!" Jane realized, angry at herself for having forgotten so easily, and began to search the shelves within reach of her current hiding place for anything of use.

Malekith's eyes shimmered dangerously as he looked from Frigga to his warrior. "Tell me where you've hidden her!" he demanded.

"I cannot," the Queen responded obstinately.

_It's now or never... Oh, I'm gonna die!_ Jane reflected, tightening her grip on the handle of her discovered weapon.

"So be it," Malekith declared, swiping a hand across his throat in a cutting motion.

Before Frigga's captor could follow through on the order however, Jane jumped out of her hiding place with a shout and stabbed his master in the shoulder.

Malekith let out a roar and shoved her violently away to bounce off of the stone pillar behind her and roll limply across the floor. He marched over and began to drag the dazed mortal up off of the ground by her hair. Jane could hear Frigga and the warrior struggling in the background but was still too stunned really to process it.

"You should not have crossed me, Mortal," Malekith growled.

Jane had just enough time to register the glint of the same bloody knife she'd just stabbed him with, coming way too close to her face, and Frigga shouting "No!" before everything went black.

* * *

Loki shivered, recognizing the vast, impenetrable darkness around him. There were no stars. There was no sound. Sound needs air to carry it, and there was none for him to breathe- but still he would not die! The cold alone should have killed him by now, as even Jötuns require some heat to survive. Or at least it should have numbed the horrible pain in his lungs, but the Void did not abide such things as logic, or consistency, or even the laws of physics. The one constant that he had witnessed was the utter lack of any sense. He was neither alive nor dead. His heart refused to beat, and despite their continued fruitless struggle, his lungs drew in no air to keep him amongst the living. Yet he was somehow still perfectly conscious.

_No. __No!__ It can't be! I made it out. I'm free now! I __can't__ still be in the void. What if I am? But I made it out! I remember! That was real. Was it real? Was it just another delusion? NononoNO! It has to end! I have to be-_

There was a faint, bluish light trickling in from somewhere at the edge of Loki's vision.

**Shhhhh, **a gentle voice soothed inside his mind.

Loki stalled at the new sensations, feeling a wave of calm creep over him to chase away the burning cold. There was no light in the void. He had witnessed no evidence of another living thing within that dreadful place. How could there be when even he had been suspended there without life?

_What is this?_ Loki wondered, grateful for the reprieve.

**You're safe now.** The reply was more felt than heard, which only added to his curiosity.

_Who are you?_ Loki could feel the warm light around him smiling.

**Wake up.**

Loki jerked awake in his perch beside the front barrier of his cell, sucking in a huge gasp of blessed air. He actually jumped this time when he heard someone address him out loud.

"Bad dream?"

Loki's head snapped up to face his interrogator.

Fandral raised an eyebrow at him from the other side of the barrier, hoisting an unconscious prisoner up onto his back to haul away to his cell. Fandral's expression was caught halfway between amusement and concern.

"You still pretend that you care," Loki deflected, pretending not to hear the disappointed sigh from the warrior as he turned away. He shouldn't have allowed himself to fall asleep again with so many people around to witness it. Loki had always seemed to need far more sleep than any of the others. He knew now that it was due to his Jötun heritage, but that hardly mattered. At least before, the greatest concern involved was the risk that Thor's friends might tease him about his laziness- or in his early youth, that Balder might fuss over his 'baby brother's' apparent illness - but now... now, Loki only had bad dreams. It had been that way ever since his fall into the abyss.

On good nights, he merely dreamed of Thanos and his morbid promises and perverse torments. It had grown almost monotonous to him to hear the gravelly voice promising him a slow, and special death. He didn't even want to think about the worst nights. Death would be welcome if he were to be stuck with those horrors for the rest of his existence.

* * *

Jane sat on the massive stone windowsill of the guest room where she was now technically imprisoned, looking out at yet another spectacular view of Asgard. Odin was calling this 'enforced guard,' but that was really just politician-speak for 'let's lock the human up where no one will see her'. As soon as she regained consciousness, Jane had seen Frigga lying in the bed next to hers looking pale and drawn, and she knew that she had failed. The Queen had reached out to gently grasp her wrist in a comforting gesture before Jane had even realized that she was crying. Once Jane managed to get a hold of herself again, Frigga returned her attention to Thor and Odin, her mind set on explaining Jane's strange discoveries to Thor while he hovered between their beds looking utterly lost. Frigga had stubbornly fought to retain her faculties long enough to warn him that she had 'felt a great rift spreading through Asgard'. She also made him swear to her that he would look out for Jane and Loki, as she feared that they were 'caught at the heart of it'.

Jane understood that her wording may have been affected by her mortally-injured, semi-lucid state, but Odin, already grieving over his wife's imminent demise, heard the words 'Loki' and 'look out' in the same breath, and assumed the more threatening meaning must apply. Jane was fairly certain that he was blaming her for what had happened to Frigga, but that was fine. Jane blamed herself too. If she hadn't wandered off on her own and gotten infected with the Aether, Thor and Loki's mother would still be alive and well. Jane would be back in London continuing her research, and she and Loki would both be in a little less trouble with the Allfather. Loki may be serving a life-sentence for intergalactic war crimes - now there was a phrase she had never thought she'd use - but he'd still protected her from that alien down in the cells, and getting him in even more trouble felt like a horrible way to thank him. Besides that, ever since their encounter, she'd had this nagging doubt in the back of her mind. The Loki she'd met wasn't anything like the sadistic, mass-murdering psychopath described in all the SHEILD reports and witness data Jane had managed to access back on Earth.

As she had noted aloud during their brief conversation in the dungeon, he seemed more like the inscrutable, not-so-malign little brother whom Thor had described during his stay in Puente Antiguo. Jane had to keep reminding herself of the catastrophic end to that particular adventure provided by the Trickster himself. _It was probably an act... Why?_ The nagging doubt nudged a little harder, reminding her of the fleeting shock that had passed over his features when she had first mentioned Thor.

He had lashed out at her as one would expect. But there had been a moment. The briefest pause, barely a second, when she'd seen something flash through his eyes. He had looked so frightened, almost hurt. It reminded her of a wounded animal, or the way that some of the rougher looking alley-cats back home would panic and growl at any human who ventured too close to them.

Jane knew there was no way that Loki was afraid of her_._ He'd made his unwariness of her abundantly clear from the first moment he laid eyes on her. _So, what then? _She came to a decision, pushed herself up off the windowsill, and walked over to knock crisply on the locked chamber door. After a brief pause, one of the massive, aesir guards pulled the door open and peeked curiously into her room.

"Good eve, Milady..." he said with obvious confusion.

"Yeah, hi. Same to you. I need to talk to Thor," Jane informed him, letting her frustration with the entire situation fuel her resolve. There was no way that she was going to let anyone else down again as she had when she'd failed to save Frigga.

"With respect, my Lady, the Crowned Prince has many pressing issues to attend to in this time of war," the guard hedged. _Wow. I know I've heard that one before,_ Jane thought wryly _I guess some things are universal._

"I understand," Jane assured him in exactly the same, superficially-polite tone, "You can let him decide whether or not he has time for me when you relay my request." She hated to push like this, but she had learned in her time, struggling for her place in the world of academia, that sometimes assertiveness was the only way to get through. "Or do you actually believe that it takes two of you at once to guard one ninety-pound, mortal woman?" She highly doubted that. As this guy's very muscular hand looked to be about the same size as her head.

The guard scowled in annoyance, and ducked back into the hall without further argument. She was pretty sure that she'd heard his comrade let out an amused snort at his expense. Then the door was pulled shut and the guard's footsteps stalked away down the corridor.

* * *

Loki lashed out, thrashing and kicking, throwing anything within reach, with no thought for his appearance or the injuries he was collecting or, well, without any lucid thought, really. He just smashed and raged until he had finally worn himself out. He let himself slide numbly down the wall, panting and so empty. '_Queen Frigga is dead.'_ The Einherjar's words echoed through Loki's head over and over without any meaning. '_Frigga is dead.'_ His empty eyes wandered over the cluttered contents of his cell. Everything was broken. He had gotten smears of blood on the walls and floor. _Mother would doubtless-_ Loki went completely still. _Mother is dead._

Loki reeled back, barely noticing his head smacking against the wall behind him, and he screamed. It was a loud, endless thing, full of all the pain and anger, and everything else that he had left. He didn't stop screaming until he was shaking from the effort and lacked air in his lungs to continue. _Mother is dead, and __I __wasn't __there__._

There was a warmth against his hand. Loki ignored it, staring unseeing into the darkened, suddenly dead-silent dungeon. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. He was alone..._ As I deserve to be_. The warmth against his hand gave a little crackle, almost like a mild electric shock, as if in response to his morbid thoughts.

Finally, with his eyes falling shut in resignation, Loki slipped a hand over the source of the sudden warmth. Sure enough, he felt the now familiar, dodecahedral shape under his palm. The prism. Now that he was paying attention, Loki realized that the heat he had felt was not constant, nor was it building at all. Instead, he could feel it flickering- It was _pulsing_ in a steady rhythm, not unlike that of a heartbeat. As the surface of the crystal contacted his skin, Loki felt something else, intangible, but definitely real. There was an energy emitting from the crystal. It almost felt like-

There was a thud from the adjacent cell, then a shuffling sound from one of the prisoners next door shoving the other one. _Ah, he struck the wall in order to get my attention._ Loki didn't even have the energy to be disdainful about it.

"Oi! What in Helheim was that, Silvertongue?" the brute bellowed, "Have you finally snapped?"

There was a mumble from the prisoner's cellmate and a bout of chuckles. The prisoner across the way called out another, more audible and far less tasteful gibe about the dark prince's mental state (among other, even less appropriate allusions) and the tension among the other inmates seemed to vanish.

"Ha, ha! Indeed. The limber little ergi don't need much sense. He'll be good fun all the same come bathing hour tomorrow," one of the marauders loudly agreed from cell across the walkway, and to the left of Loki's.

The Trickster's nostrils flared at the implication, but he did not respond any more than that instinctive reaction. _These boorish cads are so very lucky that the house of Odin cares for me no longer._

The prism in his hand let out another, softer, little surge to show his disapproval-

_ His? Where did __that__ idea come from? _Loki, paused and held his hand up to regard the crystalline enigma in the palm of his hand. It glowed with a soft, blue light for a couple seconds before the light retreated into its core. Loki knew that light.

_Who are you? _Loki focused, sending the thought out towards the prism.

Nothing.

_Naturally. Perhaps I __have__ lost my mind._

** ...friend...**

Loki stared. It- _He _had responded, if only faintly. It had barely been a message, more of an impression, or a feeling, than a complete thought, but it had been there. _A friend? Hmmm... This merits further study._

A spark of amusement danced at the edge of his awareness in response to his decision.

Loki didn't respond, although he did make a note of 'His' currently monitoring Loki's thoughts. The light built once more before receding again more gradually until it was barely discernible. Loki closed his hand around it, looking out through the barrier more lucidly when he heard someone descending the stairs on his right. A split second later, a golden light swept over him and a neat, impassive Loki could be seen casually reclining against the wall of his pristine cell while he waited to see the newcomer.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, guys. I know that was long and that some of you are feeling a lack of Charles here, but please bare with me. The Cherik will return in its own time, lol. -Don't kill me. Hopefully I'm doing a good enough job introducing the new cast and setting to be forgiven, eh? Anyway, thank you all for reading this, and special thanks to my dear icanhearthedrums for her continued help and support. As always i hope y'all review.


	2. An unexpected alliance

**Chapter Two: ****An unexpected alliance**

"You wanted us to meet you here?" Fandral prompted as he entered Thor's personal chambers, his dark indigo eyes lingering on the mortal woman who clearly wasn't supposed to be there.

"Yes. Thank you my friend. Take a seat," Thor greeted amicably, ignoring the unspoken question.

"I was just escorting Jane to her latest meeting with the healers," Sif intoned drily. "Alas, we seem to have taken a wrong turn."

Volstagg's lips quirked in mild amusement. "Aye, that is a shame. You are bound to be late now."

Fandral gave a slight nod, claiming the seat at the other end of Thor's table. "I believe that I can guess what you've called us all here for."

Thor inclined his head, prompting him to continue.

"The Allfather has forbidden us to go after Malekith at the present time... If I may be so bold, Sire," Fandral bypassed the pause, knowing that Thor would consent, "Without use of the Bifrost, I do not see how you expect to sneak them out of Asgard."

The others all stared at Fandral with varying expressions of incredulity and confusion. Sif was the first to address it aloud.

"Them?" she echoed, nonplussed.

Jane was looking back and forth between the two warriors, seeming merely curious about how he had known.

"Jane and Loki, of course," Fandral clarified. "I assumed that this must be in regard to the Queen's warning..." He trailed off at the forbidding look that Sif flashed him for mentioning Thor's late mother.

Thor's shoulders dropped a little and he admitted, "You were correct in your assumption," ignoring the wordless protests from Sif and Volstagg's side of the table. "And I have a plan, that I believe will work, but I require your help."

"You cannot trust him," Sif reminded the thunderer.

"I am aware of that," Thor acknowledged, continuing undaunted, "As you know, there is but one person in Asgard who truly understands the many passageways between the worlds."

Volstagg sighed. "Loki," he lamented softly.

"I can retrieve him from the dungeons myself easily enough. However, I will need your help, Lady Sif, in getting Jane to us in time to make our escape. Heimdall will deal with my father and his guards at the Bifrost, while Loki and I make our way to our true transport."

"He is going to betray you," Fandral noted.

"I don't think so," Jane quietly disagreed.

"You do not yet know him," Sif dismissed, prompting Thor to let out an impatient huff that was far more characteristic of his moody little brother.

"This is an act of treason. If you do not wish to aid me in this venture, I will understa-"

"I have no qualms with it," Fandral said easily before the prince could even finish giving him an out.

"I am with you as well," Volstagg agreed with a half-nod, although he, at least, sounded less casual about it.

"I will assist you, out of loyalty," Sif stated, shooting Fandral a pointed look. After a pregnant pause, she broke the silence by observing, "There is little time to waste."

* * *

"Ah, Brother Dearest," Loki drawled sarcastically as Thor walked into view outside of his cell. "After all this time, he finally decides to grace me with his presence."

Thor stood, stone-faced, on the other side of the faintly shimmering force-field, his weary eyes halfheartedly tracking the movements of the energetic prisoner before him. "Enough, Loki. No more illusions."

The false Loki straightened, his expression taking on that disturbing emptiness that Thor had never been able to get used to. Then it was overtaken by a wave of golden light that swept the facade of Loki's entire cell out of existence. Thor blinked a couple of times, taking in the absolute broken-heap that the real cell had become, and the smears of blood that stood out against the white wall and floor (and more importantly Loki's hands and the sole of one foot). The thought that_ 'Our mother would have an absolute fit if she was here to see this'_ floated unbidden through Thor's mind before he could stop himself.

"Did she suffer?" Loki asked from where he was slumped against the far corner. His voice was quieter than usual and sounded painfully raw.

"I did not come here to discuss our mother's fate," Thor deflected. The marauder who had threatened Loki before stepped closer out of poorly-veiled interest as Loki replied.

"Then pray tell, Thor, why have you come here? Was it to mock?"

"I have a proposal for you."

Loki's verdant eyes narrowed to distrustful slits. "No..."

"You have not yet heard the terms of my proposal," Thor pointed out with a patience that indicated he had expected this response.

Loki ran his ever perceptive gaze over Thor, taking in every minute detail with an unreadable expression on his face. Thor waited silently for him to finish, observing the other prince in turn (although, admittedly less closely) until the younger man deigned to break the silence.

"How's your mortal?" Loki deadpanned.

**You could at least wait and hear what he has to say,** the gentle, male 'voice' from the prism suggested within Loki's mind.

Thor let out another Loki-esque sigh, giving his brother a flat look before continuing on with the matter at hand, oblivious to the movement of Loki's left hand reaching out to grab the prism off the floor by his hip. "I have come to take you from this..." Thor let his gaze wander over the destroyed innards of Loki's cell, "place."

"What for?" Loki replied in a tone that screamed 'bullshit'.

"I trusted you once, Loki. You should know that when we fought in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there, somewhere. That hope no longer exists to protect you."

**That wasn't very nice...**He observed, communicating a feeling of discomfort on Loki's behalf. The consciousness seemed to be growing more communicative the more that they interacted, although whether it was by choice or necessity was still unclear.

"What is it that you want, Thor?" Loki prompted, sounding unexpectedly calm and patient in light of the current situation. _I'm__ not very nice,_ he informed Him.

"I require your help in getting Jane to Svartálfheim without use of the Bifrost," Thor explained. The utterly unpredictable _non-sequitur_ actually wiped Loki's mind completely blank for a fleeting moment as he tried to make sense of Thor's apparent insanity. This was definitely a first for them. It was hard for anyone to catch the God of Mischief off guard, but Thor? Loki could always rely on him to be, well... Thor. He was so distracted by it that he completely failed to notice when Thor turned away to pin the eavesdropper across the walkway with a menacing stare until the brute shied away from them.

"Is this a- No it's you; of course it isn't," Loki corrected himself, prompting a questioning glance from the Crowned Prince. "Have you hit your head rather hard recently? Why would you take anyone to Svartálfheim? And- Well, obviously the Allfather has forbidden it, as he is sane."

"It was the Dӧkkálfar leader, Malekith, who murdered mother," Thor explained, finally registering Loki's confusion. "I wish to avenge her."

Loki shot him a harassed look. It was obvious to him that there was a whole lot more to this story than Thor was telling. Even worse, Loki could feel Him becoming amused by it.

"Do you not desire the same?" Thor inquired.

"That explains why you want me to go..." Loki prompted, hoping that his lump of a brother would be able to fill in the rest for himself.

Thor stared at him for a moment. Just long enough for Loki's aforementioned hopes to die a horrible death, then explained "Mother gave me a warning..." Thor seemed to think better of whatever he had been about to say, explaining instead, "She made me swear to look after the two of you."

Loki stared disdainfully up at him. _And __that__ is why Thor is an idiot. _

_**Loki,**_ the consciousness within the prism chastened, not disagreeing outright, much to Loki's amusement.

_You're right. It is merely one reason out of myriad others, _he amended drily while pointing out aloud, "...So you're taking us to Svartálfheim."

"You accept, then," Thor concluded triumphantly, and Loki struggled to contain his mounting frustration.

**He's doing that on purpose,** the consciousness observed, which helped to calm Loki down a bit.

"I hate you," he told Thor.

"Good," the blond replied absently, prompting an amused chuckle that only Loki could hear. "Let's get started then, shall we? There is little time to spare."

* * *

Jane looked up from the book that she was reading upon hearing a familiar voice coming closer down the hall outside her room.

"I have been sent with food for the Lady Jane," Sif explained to the guards as she strolled past them into the guest chambers. One just shrugged, stepping politely out of her way, but when she had almost reached Jane, the younger one grabbed her shoulder. Jane noticed that it was the same bureaucratic-sounding aesir who'd resisted relaying her message to Thor the previous evening.

"Wait," he said, looking somewhat smug. "Why have they sent a warrior to deliver her food?"

"Maybe she was in the neighborhood," Jane offered wryly, then swallowed and averted her gaze when the guard scowled down at her.

"It was a recent change," Sif hedged, but Bureau-Guard wasn't having it.

"Why was I not informed?" he pushed.

It was Sif's turn to scowl, this time in irritation."I confess, you have uncovered my deception," she admitted and grabbed the obnoxious guard's sword-wielding arm in one hand while she thrust him headfirst against his partner. The fight was over within a couple of seconds.

"Come. We must make haste," Sif instructed. Jane jogged after her down the corridors, being reminded once again of the aesirs' more formidable physique as she struggled to keep up with the Lady warrior.

* * *

"Loki_,_" Thor called impatiently through the doorway while Loki continued to rifle through the silver and ebony jewelry box that Sif had let him keep in his youth, after she had caught him stealing it. It was where he kept his more sentimental, and useless trinkets hidden from prying eyes."I told you that we had little time. You must be dressed by now!"

"In a moment," Loki disagreed, but Thor barged into the room anyway, looking entirely unamused by his procrastination. Loki tried and failed to look apologetic."Uhm..."

Thor crossed his arms over his chest, looking stern. Loki was rather relieved that he had just managed to find what he was looking for.

"So I am," Loki admitted, suspecting that he was about to be struck for his trouble.

"I see," Thor acknowledged, glancing down at the box, then back up at Loki's expectant face. "That's a jewelry box."

"She gave it to me," Loki reflexively defended, speaking simultaneously with Thor's observation.

"Why..." Thor trailed off, debating whether or not his question was even worth asking. "You're done."

"Yes," Loki confirmed, pulling the empty pendant out as proof even though he knew that hadn't actually been a question.

Thor narrowed his eyes at Loki's nonsensical behavior before grabbing his arm and dragging him out of the room. "You will waste no more of our time, unless you wish for a life in the cells."

"Shall we get started then, Brother?" Loki appealed hopefully.

Thor shoved his arm as he released his hold and allowed Loki to fall into step with him. He was trying to act like he wasn't curious about the pendant, but Loki could feel Thor watching him open the empty cage the centerpiece of the necklace had long abandoned to slip the simple prism into it. It was a bit too colorless and understated for such housing, but Loki didn't mind so long as it remained secure.

"What is that?" Thor inquired, watching Loki hang the chain around his neck and tuck the altered pendent underneath his armor.

"Special to me," Loki answered with the faintest hint of a protective tone sneaking into his voice. "That is all that you will hear of it."

**Thank you.**

_Do not let such comments go to your head. I had to tell him something, _Loki hastily corrected.

**You're protecting me, **He disagreed, still sounding far too appreciative for Loki's comfort.** I'm grateful.**

_And I am merely curious. You would do well to remember that._

There was a short, uncomfortable silence as Thor and Loki continued through the halls. It was broken, perhaps too soon, by Loki getting bored and bothering the older Prince. First he cast an illusion that turned Thor into Lady Sif.

"Why Brother, you look ravishing!" he teased.

"It will hurt no less when I kill you in this form," Thor pointed out.

** Really, Loki. I wouldn't push him,** the consciousness warned, but Loki ignored him. He disappeared the unwanted projection from Thor and took on the guise of an Einherjar lieutenant.

Thor ran his gaze over the latest projection, recognizing the perfect likeness of Lieutenant Rorik from his time with the soldier on Vanaheim. Then he went back to ignoring his obnoxious charge. Instead of being discouraged, Loki switched to Captain America's appearance in the next moment and danced mischievously around in front of his brother in hopes of getting a reaction. The consciousness reflected that he might be starved for attention, but Loki decided that He was only trying to ruin his fun and disregarded it.

"Hey, you wanna have a rousing discussion about Truth? Honor? Patriotism? God bless

Amer-"

Thor shoved Loki back against a column, dispersing the illusion.

"-ica."

And clamped a hand over Loki's mouth with a deep scowl.

Loki shook off Thor's hand. "What?"

Thor looked down the hall to their right to watch a group of palace guards march past them, then frowned pointedly at Loki. "Be. Quiet."

* * *

Finally, Jane recognized two hushed voices at the end of the corridor and realized that they'd reached the rendezvous point. _Well, no. Loki's keeping his voice down. I'm pretty sure that Thor's just decided to use an inside voice today, _Jane thought with affectionate amusement.

"Oh, look. Your woman has arrived," Loki's scathing voice remarked as they came into view. "Lady Sif," he acknowledged, but Sif just walked past him to stand on the side of him that Thor hadn't claimed for himself, to monitor the corridor. Thor stepped forward and grabbed Jane in a tight hug, then pulled back, brushing her hair out of her face with one calloused hand so that he could inspect the bruise on her left cheek.

"I'm fine. Just a minor disagreement with the guards," Jane reassured him. "Don't worry. No one died this time." Then she stepped past him to face a mildly-intrigued Loki.

"Dr. Foster, I did not expect-" Smack! Jane interrupted Loki with a slap across the face, feeling only a tad guilty when she belatedly registered his chained wrists.

"That was for New York," she informed him as he straightened up again, already grinning down at her. "And I am nobody's woman."

Loki's grin stretched a little wider. "I like her," he appraised.

Sif, who had whirled around in shock at the sound of the blow, rolled her eyes at his behavior, but didn't remark on it. Thor was too preoccupied with checking his end of the corridor for threats to really react, but Loki glanced over at him anyway.

"Come, we should keep moving," Thor announced, walking back over to them and leading Jane away with one arm wrapped protectively around her shoulders. Loki moved to follow but was stopped by the blade of Sif's double-edged sword being pressed against his throat.

"I care not what your brother or his companion says. I do not trust you, Loki. So know this: if you betray them," Sif flashed him a frosty smile, "I will kill you."

Loki smiled down at her, although his grin seemed incongruously genuine. "It is good to see you too, Sif."

Sif squinted bitterly up at him before whipping her blade away from his throat and readying for the guards who were bound to come after them. Loki caught up with Jane and Thor just as they reached what was perhaps the largest indoor space that Jane had ever seen, only to fall behind again when Volstagg grabbed his arm. This time, Jane consciously slowed her pace, prompting Thor to glance down at her in concern. She looked back over her shoulder just in time to catch the tail-end of Loki and Volstagg's exchange.

"If you even think about betraying them-" Volstagg was interrupted by Loki's dismissive response.

"Let me guess. You'll kill me?" he intoned as though they were discussing the weather.

"Jane?" Thor inquired when Jane stopped walking altogether. She just shook her head at him, continuing to watch Volstagg frown at Loki in obvious confusion.

"Evidently, there will be a line," Loki elaborated flippantly then pushed past the warrior to follow after them. He arched an eyebrow in silent question when he noticed that Jane was waiting for him.

"It's not like we're going anywhere without you," Jane stated in lieu of an explanation, and he seemed mostly to accept that. Thor was already pulling her along behind him on his dash towards the ship, clearly having accepted the explanation without further thought.

* * *

When they got into the ship, Thor made a beeline for the pilot's station and began pressing different buttons at random. He activated the command consoles easily enough, but the rest of his attempts did not look promising. Jane just stood back and took in the monochromatic silver and gray of the bridge, trusting that Thor would never let them down, even if she wasn't feeling comforted by his haphazard approach.

Loki, in contrast, was far more willing to voice his misgivings. "You said that you knew how to fly this thing," he accused, hovering at his adoptive sibling's shoulder.

"I said: how hard can it be," Thor corrected, still fussing with the controls.

**Oh dear.**

"Have you tried all the buttons?" Loki prodded. He was more amused than concerned at this point, and the consciousness seemed reassured by that.

"Look at me. What am I doing?" Thor replied, annoyed, as he made a show of patting all over the consoles in front of him. "I am hitting all the buttons. Nothing is happening."

"Perhaps if you tried pressing them, Thor," Loki corrected. "You can't solve every problem by smashing it, you know. You'll just break something."

"Listen-" Thor began, pressing a button to his left as he turned on the pesky Trickster. Naturally, that was the one that worked, and Thor blinked in surprise while Loki's face split in a smug grin.

Loki's victorious moment was cut short when a swarm of guards flowed into the chamber below.

"Thor!"

The thunderer didn't bother to respond as he began to take off, ramming the wings of the craft through column after giant, stone column in the process. There was a beat of silence, promptly broken by Loki. "I think you missed a column."

"Shut up," Thor ordered, keeping his eyes glued to the view-screen in front of them while he flew them out into the open sky. Jane leaned forward to peek out the closest window at the beautiful golden city passing by beneath them without letting go of her handhold on the wall. It was a breathtaking sight despite the circumstances, at least to human eyes.

"Why don't you let me take over? I'm clearly the better pilot," Loki suggested.

"Is that so?" Thor replied. "Well out of the two of us, which one can actually fly?"

They whizzed out over the city at top speed and he tucked them into an accidental spin that sliced them through a massive stone monument.

"Not a word," he warned preemptively.

"Now they're following us!" Loki observed, pacing around to Thor's other side only to be knocked down and slid right back into his previous placement by Thor's reckless piloting.

Bursts of red light streaked past them as he pulled himself to his feet using the edge of the console, only to be nearly knocked down all over again when the ship shook from an impact.

"Now they're firing at us!" he exclaimed accusingly.

"Yes, thank you for the commentary, Loki! It's not at all distracting!" Thor snapped, still not taking his eyes off of the view-screen.

Loki opened his mouth to speak...

**Hold on!** He cut in urgently, right before they went into another barrel-roll that would have proven far more perilous if Loki hadn't immediately grabbed the console.

The Trickster caught sight of falling rubble, and what was obviously a chunk of a massive marble face through the window and smirked. "Well done! You've just decapitated your grandfather," he announced sarcastically, then turned to look back at Jane when she collapsed in a motionless heap on the floor behind them.

"Oh, dear. Is she dead?" he remarked.

**Loki! **the consciousness chastened.

_What?_ he thought back, while Thor called "Jane?" just to be sure.

"I'm good," Jane called a little breathlessly, giving a limp wave in an effort to seem less deceased.

**You could help her,** He suggested, at the same time that Thor pulled them into an inadvisable flip that had Loki clinging to the outer edge of the console again for fear of falling out of the harrow.

"Why?" Loki challenged petulantly, and accidentally aloud.

"Why what?" Thor drawled long-sufferingly.

**Because you can. It will do you no harm to show a little consideration for others.**

"Why must you include me in this farce?" Loki covered with practiced ease, pacing halfheartedly over to the dazed-looking mortal on the floor. "It is utterly pointless!"

_I am only doing this to prove that you are wrong, _he informed Him.

**Not everyone in the world is like Odin.**

_She isn't from my world, _Loki pointed out as he knelt down and prodded the breathing pile of fabric in front of him experimentally.

** Even more so.**

"What's wrong with you?" Loki inquired, ignoring the disappointed sigh that echoed through his mind in response to his lack of tact.

"Wha..." Jane murmured. Then she rolled over to face him. When she looked up at Loki, her strange blue and black eyes took him aback, but he recovered with admirable speed. "Too hot..."she complained in a raspy voice, and Loki reached out to rest a hand on the side of her neck. She was definitely feverish.

**You can help her.**

Loki's lips thinnedat His persistence, so he decided to test the mortal and prove his point in one go.

"Close your eyes," he instructed quietly, fully expecting Jane's inevitable rejection. To his astonishment, she simply passed her bleary gaze over his face once before complying. After recovering from his surprise, Loki concentrated and shifted the hand resting over her neck into it's cooler, jotun state, letting it linger just long enough for the barest hints of frost to form over his skin.

"Loki..." Thor called back, sounding suspicious. "What are you doing back there?"

_You see? _Loki insisted, yanking his hand away from Jane as if burned and drawing an almost-imperceptible squeak of protest from the feverish woman in response.

**Well, to be fair, you've hardly been behaving yourself today.**

Loki frowned, feeling strangely discomfited by His lack of support. Then he regarded his now snow-white hand and called over his shoulder "Your mortal is overheating," ignoring the limp attempt at a slap that Jane landed on his arm in retribution. "Do try again later," he teased quietly, then rose to his feet to engage Thor.

"Really Thor, even for you this is a moronic plan." He dropped into an impression of his brother's booming voice "Join me, Brother! I shall break you out of prison along with my ailing mortal companion! Come, let us fly away in the most conspicuous vessel available, which I shall pilot myself as I know not how!"

To their surprise Jane let out a girlish giggle, although it might have simply been caused by delirium rather than by Loki's Thor impression (skillful though it was). He had been perfecting it since they were both still small, after he'd discovered the potential that it had to irritate both of his older brothers while gaining approval from their friends.

"You see? This is a tremendous idea! Let's steal the biggest, most recognizable ship in all of the universe and escape in that! Flying it around the city, smashing into everything in sight so that everyone will see it! It's brilliant, Thor! It's truly brill- Wuah!" Loki exclaimed, flailing his arms to try and catch himself when Thor unceremoniously shoved him out through the window in mid-rant.

"Hmmm," Jane hummed as Thor helped her up off the floor. Then she noticed Loki's sudden absence. "What? Thor what are you-"

"Hold on tightly," Thor instructed, not giving her any time to question it before he scooped her up and jumped out the window.

* * *

"I see that your time in the dungeon has made you no less graceful, Loki," Fandral joked in place of a greeting when a flailing blur of black, white, and green impacted the deck a couple of meters in front of him. To be fair, the youngest prince _had _technically landed on his feet.

Loki was almost finished picking himself up off the floor of the skiff when he heard a little yelp and a heavy thud, and turned to see Thor rising from his calculated impact a few feet behind him. He had landed even less masterfully than Loki, making sure to land with Jane nestled safely on top of him to protect her from the impact. He shot Loki a warning look while he returned his hammer to its place on his belt. _Ah, yes...Air pressure._ Loki ignored the warning and caught Fandral's eye, gesturing sarcastically toward Thor in defense of his reputation. The blond swordsman smirked in amusement but was quick to hide it when his friend turned to face him.

"Sire," Fandral acknowledged solemnly from his place at the tiller. "Jane."

"Ughhh..." Jane groaned, wandering past Loki to perch at the bow of the skiff. Her eyes had returned to their original color since Loki had last seen them, but she was still somewhat out of it. Fandral exchanged a significant look with Thor.

"We have little time before they discover our ploy," Thor stated. Glancing over at Jane, he cautioned, "Mind the edge."

"You lied to me!" Loki observed, and walked over to take Fandral's place at the tiller. "I'm impressed."

Thor just shot him a look and headed over to arrange the bedding at the stern, not noticing the way that Loki immediately repositioned himself so that all the others aboard remained within his field of vision. Fandral ran a discerning gaze over the younger man's face. He had noticed.

"You said that you could guide us out of Asgard," Thor reminded Loki.

"I am."

"I suggest that you hasten your efforts."

"Thor-" Loki was interrupted by a barrage of weapons fire arcing past from behind him. He didn't even flinch.

"It seems that we have been discovered," Fandral noted lightly, stepping forward and helping Jane over to the seat that Thor had arranged for her.

"Loki..." Thor urged.

"I already am."

"They will overtake us soon!"

"They will not," Fandral reassured them before the argument could truly begin. He paused to watch their pursuers gaining on them, and to gauge the distance, then drew his rapier using the point to cut a hanging cable to the necessary length. "Good luck, my friends!" he cried, doing a little bow before shouting "For Asgard!" and using the cable to swing away onto the pursuing skiff. In the distance they could hear him land lightly on the deck and announce: "I'm sorry about this chaps!" Then the sounds of clashing swords faded out of hearing range.

**He almost looked like he was enjoying that,** the consciousness reflected.

"He was," Loki muttered, more focused on steering the skiff away from danger than on who had spoken to him.

"He was what?" Thor asked.

"No matter," Loki dismissed, seeing the cliff-face that he'd been searching for finally come into view.

"Loki..." Thor said anxiously once it became clear that Loki was steering them straight into a solid slab of rock.

"If it was easy, everyone would do it," Loki replied, his eyes glued to the almost imperceptible crevice splitting the cliff up ahead.

"Are you mad!?" Thor exclaimed.

"Possibly."

Thor ducked down to shield Jane's blissfully-unconscious form on the bedding behind him, right before the skiff scraped through the crevice at full speed with sparks flying everywhere. A disconcerting sensation of absence overtook them and complete darkness engulfed them all for a split-second. That second began to stretch without any evidence that time had passed, nor any proof of their existence whatsoever. Before Thor could truly fret for Jane's survival within the overwhelming lack, the air pressure returned along with light, and time, and gravity, and sound, and they burst out onto the barren wastes of Svartálfheim. It really had only been a split-second.

"Ta daa," Loki deadpanned.

Thor looked up to glare at him and noticed that he couldn't seem to catch his breath. Thor stilled, his anger forgotten. He couldn't understand why Loki would even be out of breath in the first place.

"Are you alright, Brother?"

"I'm not your brother," Loki deflected, releasing his grip on the tiller and crossing to the far end of the skiff as Jane began to stir.

**He's only worried about you.**

_Do not presume to speak of things that you do not understand, _Loki objected internally, struggling to hide the tremors that were running through his entire body, as he pressed his back to the paneling.

**I do understand.** At the surge of defensive rage that this comment triggered, He sent a gentle impression of security that Loki resisted on reflex.

_I will __not__ be manipulated!_ he snarled at Him. Loki couldn't seem to get any air.

**I'm not trying to trick you, Loki... **the consciousness soothed, barely refraining from another attempt to comfort him telepathically.

_You truly believe that you can deceive the God of Lies?!_

"Loki?" Thor questioned with mounting concern, watching Loki begin to struggle for breath. "What is it? What is wrong with you?!"

**He didn't mean that.**

Loki let out a wordless snarl and pressed his back harder against the paneling.

Thor frowned down at him, confused, and rose from his seat. "Brother?" he demanded more urgently, starting towards Loki. A delicate hand reached up to grasp his bicep, halting his progress. Thor looked back at Jane.

She shook her head at him. Her expression was solemn.

"Hang on," she told him in a carefully-modulated tone before stepping between the two men. Loki's eyes zeroed in on her face with fierce intensity, reminiscent of a trapped wild animal. Jane slowly knelt down facing him, careful to keep both her hands in view all the while.

"Okay. We're okay," she said in the same calm, modulated voice that she'd used to speak to Thor. It wasn't patronizing, nor especially gentle, merely patient. She was relaying the facts.

Loki didn't respond outright, but the intensity of his ragged breathing settled down a little.

"I just want to come a little bit closer to you. Will you let me do that?"

The way that Loki's brow crinkled together would have been unnoticeable if Jane hadn't already been watching for it.

"That's fine; we can wait here as long as you want," she assured him.

"Jane-" Thor began to protest, but Jane held up a hand to silence him with her gaze still resting steadily on Loki's face.

"Whatever it was that you did back there on the ship. That really helped me," Jane continued. Thor narrowed his eyes, but he knew better than to push the matter in their current situation.

"I didn't get a chance to thank you for that."

Loki tensed up immediately and his breathing sped up again. Jane held her hands out in a submissive gesture.

"I was just hoping that you might give me a chance to return the favor." Luckily, that turned out to be the right thing to say, because Loki relaxed and gave her the slightest nod.

Jane carefully crossed the space between them, allowing Loki every opportunity to stop her if he got uncomfortable again.

Thor looked on with interest while Jane leaned forward and spoke with Loki in a hushed voice. Then she took one of Loki's shaking hands and held it to her side while her dark eyes studied his face. Eventually, Loki's breathing fell back into its usual steady rhythm and Jane released her grip on his hand, but made no move to leave his side.

Loki looked pale and drawn and utterly miserable, avoiding eye contact with either of them and acting ashamed of himself. Thor opened his mouth to inquire about whatever it was that had just happened, but hesitated. Jane seemed to understand what this was, and she had warned him to be quiet. He figured that he should remain that way until she indicated that it was safe to do otherwise. Knowing that didn't make it any easier though.

After nearly fifteen minutes of weighted silence, Loki got up and walked over to check their bearing, pretending that nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. Thor frowned at him and shot a look at Jane, but to his surprise she stood up and returned to the seat, content to play along with his brother's delusion.

"There's a magnetic fault running through this valley," Loki reported, turning to regard him expectantly. "We should be able to ride it south for a few hours without much bother."

Thor continued to eye him sternly.

"If you would prefer an alternate course..."

"What happened back there?" Thor demanded. On the seat behind him, Jane cringed.

"I brought us through a passage, Thor, as you requested," Loki recounted slowly as though speaking to an especially dull child. "I would expect you to remember, as it was mere moments ago."

"That is not what I was referring to, as you well know," Thor insisted.

"Thor," Jane prompted, holding a hand out toward him that he ignored in favor of staring down his deceptive charge. "Please, just... come sit with me."

"I made a promise to mother."

Loki scoffed and pushed past Thor toward the other side of the craft, putting more distance between them. "Yes, and you are doing a splendid job: kidnapping me out of prison, dragging us both to the land of the Dӧkkálfar..."

"Do not think that you can distract me!"

"Distract you? How could I distract you? It's not as though you're the mindless oaf who swanned off and gave his heart to a mere mortal. Oh wait-"

As predicted, Thor grabbed the Dark Prince by the front of his armor and spun them around so that he was pinned against the wood of the mast.

"Thor!" Jane shouted, jumping up, ready to storm over and physically pull the two idiots apart if she had to.

Thor hesitated, then let out a deep breath and released his hold, stepping away from the disappointed Trickster. "Mother would not want us to fight."

"Well, she wouldn't exactly be shocked," Loki pointed out.

Jane was still standing poised in front of her make-shift bed, watching them both intently.

"Charging to my rescue, Dr. Foster?" Loki mocked. "Do try to remember who the villain is."

"Stop it," Jane snapped. She turned her reproachful gaze on Thor. "And you, stop falling for it!" with that she spun around and reclaimed her position within the nest of pillows, pulling the blankets over her with more aggression than was strictly necessary.

Loki watched her in thoughtful silence. After a beat, Thor sneaked his hand up to try and cup his brother's jaw, but Loki slapped his arm back down before it reached its target. No one was that sneaky. Thor let out a regretful sigh, looking like a kicked puppy, and let his gaze wander around them.

"That face doesn't work on me," Loki reminded him, still lost in his own meditations. His face scrunched up at the flicker of amusement he felt from the consciousness in reaction to his brother's unsuccessful overture, and felt Him recede to the edge of his awareness with a wordless apology.

"You are not well," Thor observed sadly, and a muscle in Loki's jaw twitched.

"I am capable. That is all that you require of me," was Loki's icy response, and the end to their conversation, since he then stalked away to sit near the tiller, refusing to acknowledge Thor's presence anymore.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay guys. That's it for this week. Thanks for reading, and as always I hope that you enjoyed this. Special thanks for this week go to _icanhearthedrums_ for her help and support during a rather frustrating battle I was having against a series of computer glitches. Anyways, until next time my darlings. I bid you a fond adieu. Please review.

**P.S.** I had to re-upload this chapter due to my ongoing battle with the dreaded glitches. Sorry for the inconvenience.


	3. Meanwhile

**Chapter Three: Meanwhile**

Charles opened his eyes on the Astral Plane to see Erik looking down at him in silent question. He was sitting at one end of the sofa with a book open in his hands, and Charles was lying lengthwise across the sofa with his head resting in the metal-bender's lap.

"Good evening..." Charles greeted him, beginning to scrutinize their surroundings. The room was based somewhat on his study back at the mansion, but there were bits and pieces of other locations woven seamlessly into the design.

"Is it now?" Erik questioned, resting his arms around his newly-materialized companion.

"Evening? Yes ...I believe so. At least, it seems that way on the planet that we're on. Although, I wouldn't call it a particularly good one," Charles reflected, making himself comfortable in his new position.

Erik closed the book that he'd been reading and set it down on the arm of the couch, looking down at the troubled professor with interest.

"I've made a mistake." Charles frowned, mulling over the event in question while he watched the flames crackling cheerfully in the fireplace on the other side of their unfinished chess game. "A rather bad one, I'm afraid. I'm not sure what I'm meant to do."

"What went wrong?" Erik prompted, running a hand through Charles' hair as he waited.

Charles let out an unhappy almost-laugh. "Where do I start? Hmm. Well, Loki was not doing too well already before I arrived. It was obvious that he was suffering from some intense trauma, but he was doing everything that he could to mask it. He was in prison, by the way. Did you know about that?"

The arch of Erik's brows was enough to indicate that he hadn't been warned either.

"It had something to do with the Void, that much was obvious, but I can't see how he could possibly have survived... Jane showed up shortly after I arrived. I have a feeling that it was a side-effect of my arrival, but that's beside the point. She was meant to be with the Queen and she was late because of it." Charles squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a deep breath. "Frigga. Loki's mother was murdered. She was the one person that he had left and now... He won't trust anyone, certainly not me. His brother has dragged them off on some quest for vengeance, and Jane is trying to help, but I just had to go and make it worse!"

Erik paused, mulling over the news before he met Charles gaze again, and prompted. "How so?"

"When we made the jump to Svartálfheim- Yes, I know, Darling, but that's really what they call it," Charles remarked in response to Erik's expression, "We had to pass through a rift, or something similar. The likeness to the Void set him off. I could feel him going into a panic attack, so I tried to comfort him. He is so frightened of being manipulated. He feels certain that everyone is trying to use him, and I only made it worse! I don't know how to reach him. One moment he thinks that he is the most worthless being in existence and would hardly react to his own murder. The next- I was right there in his head, and I still couldn't tell what I was supposed to do."

"You're trying to control him," Erik noted and sighed at Charles' dissenting expression. "I'm not accusing you, Schatz, but you wanted to know what the problem was."

"I'm not."

"You're trying to make him feel better," Erik said, eyeing Charles knowingly.

"Yes, but..."

Erik just watched the information settle in his best friend's mind.

"You're right," Charles realized, looking guilty. "I was trying to use a light touch, but I was trying..." He scrubbed a hand over his face. "It's just so easy to relax and overlook how unsettling I must be to him."

"Not you, Charles."

Charles breathed out a laugh. "You weren't this hard to convince."

Erik gave a slight nod in acceptance. "You stayed out of my head."

"True," Charles agreed. "I wish that were an option this time."

Erik looked away at the clock on the wall across from them, lost in thought. It was caught perpetually ticking from 5 to 5:01, over and over in an endless loop. Erik smiled down at Charles. "Perhaps it is."

Charles frowned up at him, understandably confused.

* * *

Svartálfheim...

Thor finally let out a sigh and rose from his seat on the edge of Jane's bedding. Loki heard him stepping closer. Loki had been curled up on the floor at the opposite end of the skiff for the past two hours, the first of which had been marked by Thor padding quietly (for him) over and draping a spare blanket over Loki instead of waking him for his turn at watch. Loki understood the decision; he could not be trusted, so he continued his pretend slumber. This time however, Thor crossed the distance with much less subtlety, and Loki felt Thor leaning over him in a less-than-cautious manner.

"I know that you're awake, Brother," he announced and Loki's eyes snapped open.

"I suppose that I should thank you for the blanket," Loki intoned, not moving from his position, curled up with his back against the wooden paneling. Thor scrutinized his face, not responding immediately and looking worryingly pensive.

"You haven't slept at all, have you?" he concluded.

"You realize that when mother asked you to look after me, she was not proposing an adoption," Loki deflected.

"You are my brother."

Loki scoffed.

Thor sat down beside him anyway. "I know what you're like when you truly slumber."

"You guessed," Loki dismissed. "Which is why you were uncertain."

"I knew."

"I am the God of Lies. I know how to feign sleep convincingly," Loki stated, beginning to sound the slightest bit defensive.

"Perhaps you have convinced others, but not me," Thor said confidently. Loki pulled the blanket up to his chin, noticing with irritation that it was the same color of scarlet as Thor's cape. There was a moment of silence in which Loki shut his eyes with an intent to resume feigning sleep, and Thor seemed content to sit on the deck beside him and look up at the stars.

"It wasn't a guess?" Loki broke the silence, his vivid green eyes peeking up at Thor from behind the blanket. Thor smiled.

"Not in the least."

"Well?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Thor teased, pretending to be more interested in stargazing. Loki's brows slowly came together in a frown.

"You know what."

"Mmm," Thor continued to tease, being reminded of moments like this from their childhood together.

"Thor," Loki insisted, then shuffled back into his blanket-cocoon. "You're making it up."

"Hmmm."

There was another beat of silence. Then right on cue, Loki's head popped back into view. "What did I miss?"

"It is no fault of yours," Thor assured him. "You cannot see yourself."

"Brother-"

Finally, Thor stopped toying with him and chuckled. "You've always slept in such odd positions."

There, the frown was coming back, although this time it was in danger of devolving into a pout. "You guessed."

"No," Thor insisted, grinning. "You have always done so." He let out another involuntary chuckle. "Sif used to 'correct you' sometimes when we made camp!"

The defensive frown actually vanished from Loki's face at that news. "She didn't."

Thor nodded, grinning more broadly. "You were still small. Fandral thought it all rather sweet." He snorted at Loki's horrified expression.

"You let them into our tent," he accused.

"Oh, you didn't mind," Thor said easily. "They were our friends."

"Your friends."

"Our friends, Loki," Thor corrected right back. "You had no wariness of them yet, no matter what else I have missed in your life, I know that to be true."

"Why? Do you believe that merely because Lady Sif was still blonde and coveted?" Loki sneered. Thor gave him a disapproving look.

"No, Brother. I know it because of the way that you would hover around Fandral during training, or linger at Sif's side on our hunts. For a while I almost feared that you might be harboring a crush."

"You were never very observant."

"I know better now," Thor said, ignoring the insult and returning his gaze to the stars. "What has happened to you?"

Loki receded back beneath the blanket and closed his eyes. "I grew up."

Thor drew in a deep breath and released it, knowing better than to argue the point with Loki in such a dark mood already. He hadn't meant it as a general appraisal. Something bad had happened to Loki, and like so many other things in his little brother's life, Thor had failed to notice until the damage was done.

"I regret that I have been such a fool as to allow myself to lose your trust," Thor reflected more quietly, watching the bundle of red fabric curled up beside him on the deck.

Loki said nothing, attempting some semblance of rest.

Thor sighed tiredly and placed a hand on the silent Trickster's shoulder. It tensed at his touch only gradually to return to its original, nearly-relaxed state after a moment. "I wish that I could trust you."

"Trust is merely weakness," Loki murmured, almost a whisper, and curled tighter into his protective ball. Thor wasn't sure if he was even meant to have heard it, but he had. He felt certain that he would get no rest tonight.

* * *

Jane woke at the crack of dawn and let out a groan, stretching somewhat over-dramatically before rolling out of bed. At least it felt like it should be dawn. She couldn't really tell as there didn't seem to be any difference in light. Jane checked her watch to see how long she'd been out. _Huh. Maybe nights here are longer?_ she theorized. _I'll have to ask Thor._ Thor fidgeted somewhat, still sitting on the deck between Jane and Loki with his back propped uncomfortably against the paneling. Jane arched an eyebrow at the sleeping thunderer, but made no move to wake him. Then she narrowed her eyes and slowly turned to regard the huddle of soft red and green curled up in the far corner. After a fleeting hesitation, Jane crept over to sit on her knees in front of Thor and slowly reached up to touch his shoulder. Before her fingertips had even brushed his armor, however, she was stopped short by a hushed, yet firm-sounding, "No," from the bundle of cloth on her left.

"Oh!" Jane gasped and pressed a hand over her heart, startled by the unexpected voice. "Good morning, Loki."

"Keep your voice down, Dr. Foster," Loki warned, flicking the blanket off of his face and pinning her with a piercing stare. "The idiot has only recently succumbed to sleep."

Jane ran a speculative gaze over Loki before shrugging, and moving to sit by his legs, across from Thor, whispering "Okay."

"That was easier than I expected," Loki noted.

"You aren't going to hurt me," Jane observed, prompting an uncertain expression to flicker across the emerald eyes regarding her. "You've got no reason to want me dead, and if you did, you'd still be stuck here, alone, with Thor on this skiff, wearing what I imagine is one hell of a pair of handcuffs."

Loki cocked his head with an approving quirk of his lips. "Rational."

"I try," Jane accepted.

"Unless I am as mad as they say."

Jane stopped to stare at him for a beat, then dead-panned, "Well, then I'm screwed."

Loki blinked at her and laughed, careful not to make enough noise to rouse the sleeping Thunder God. "That is no reason to trust me."

"That's not my entire reasoning," Jane assured him.

"Pray tell, Dr. Foster. I cannot wait to hear it."

Jane smiled at him and Loki was surprised to see the spark of mischief in her dark eyes. "I'm pretty sure that you can."

"Now you've got me curious."

"Good. So, about Thor..." Jane waved a hand over the aesir's face as she continued. "You didn't drug him-" Loki caught her hand, shooting her a warning look, "...did ...you?"

"No. However, I do treasure his silence. I suggest that you oblige me."

Jane made a submissive gesture and Loki released his grip on her wrist. "You can't really want everyone to fear you."

"Ah, I see. Are we to evaluate each other now? I should warn you, it is unwise to challenge a God," Loki sneered.

"This isn't a challenge, Loki. This is a conversation. I can go back to the seat if I'm making you too uncomfortable," Jane told him in an unassuming tone. Loki sat back against the paneling, regarding her with a practiced air of polite interest. Jane stood up, beginning to head to the other end of the skiff. "Alright. Tell you what. Let's trade."

Loki paused to consider the offer before rising to follow her. "What sort of trade do you propose?"

"A truth for a truth?" Jane offered, perching herself on the edge of the seat, while Loki stood facing her with one arm resting on the tiller. "I tell you something about me, then you return the favor."

"You must realize the inherent flaw in this plan of yours," Loki said dubiously.

"Yes. Naturally, I do," Jane confirmed. "Considering the game that my idea is based on, the irony is not lost on me."

"What is the game?"

"Two truths and a lie. You'd probably love it."

"What are the rules?"

"You want to play it now, don't you?" Jane noted.

Loki watched her expectantly, waiting for the answer to his question.

"Okay. It's pretty simple. We each share three things about ourselves, statements or stories, depending on which version you want to play. Two of them are truthful, while one is, of course, a lie, and after each turn the person who isn't sharing tries to guess which one is the lie."

"It does involve the same flaw that your proposal did."

"Winning isn't the point. The game's about getting to know the people that you play it with, and seeing how well you can read them," Jane explained. "I'm sure you'd win anyway."

"Undoubtedly."

"Don't get a swollen head about it, anyone who's paying attention can tell that you're hyper-observant, and I doubt that I'm that good of a liar."

Loki straightened, running his gaze over her face for a moment. "Your turn first."

"What?"

"Three statements. I doubt that we'll have the time to exchange tales."

Jane blinked at him. "You're not kidding."

"You did say the objective was not to win," Loki encouraged.

"Umm. Hmm, got it. My favorite color is blue, my favorite constellation is Orion, and when I was a kid I had a pet rattlesnake named Sue," Jane stated with an admirably straight face.

Loki locked gazes with her for a second, then grinned. "Orion isn't your favorite."

"Nope," Jane confirmed.

"You're quite good, but you could do better. Don't let me win," Loki chastened.

"I wasn't letting you win."

Loki wasn't buying it.

"I'll try harder next time," Jane relented "It's your turn."

"I was never allowed my own horse or hound until I was old enough to participate in the hunts, as my parents had forbidden it. My first drink was a flask of Odin's beӧr to keep me quiet while I accompanied him on a hunt at the equivalent age of eight, and as far as I know my first word was bróðir," Loki intoned expressionlessly. Jane got the impression that this was Loki going easy on her, not that it was helping at all.

"Wow," she remarked, torn between the more appalling or the suspiciously endearing statement. "I wanna say... your first drink?" Jane guessed hopefully.

Loki shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, but was startled into silence by an unexpected voice from behind him.

"We were never allowed to keep pets," Thor answered somberly.

Loki cleared his throat, turning to address the new participant. "Thor, did we wake you?"

"Mother feared for your-" Thor continued to recall.

"As pleasant as this trip down Memory Lane sounds, I think it is time that we discussed your plan of action," Loki cut in tightly. He was still kicking himself for not noticing Thor's return to consciousness.

* * *

Astral Plane...

"I'm not sure how this is going to work," Charles said, moving his knight into position.

"It will work," Erik replied as he studied the chessboard between them, calculating his next move.

"You're essentially expecting Loki to summon me back to him."

"He will call you, if you give him time. Until then, we will sit and wait while I beat you at chess again," Erik responded, capturing the young Professor's knight.

"That's debatable," Charles disagreed, scrutinizing the game.

"I usually do."

"Erik, ten games against my eight does not amount to usually winning," Charles corrected. "Besides, that isn't what I'm worried about."

"You worry too much," Erik countered smoothly. The telepath's fretting was beginning to bother him, but he had no intention of showing it. "He'll call for you."

"You can't know that."

"I know," Erik assured, watching Charles move his rook. "He likes you."

"And what makes you think that?"

"Everybody likes you, Charles," Erik elaborated. "You should focus on the game, for whatever time we have left."

"I will return to you, my friend. You know that I always will."

"I am your anchor," Erik confirmed with the hint of a smile.

"Even so," Charles replied with a smile of his own. There was a beat of companionable silence between them, then Charles' gaze flicked over to Erik's current choice of reading material still perched on the arm of the sofa. "So, why Grimm's?"

"It's Wanda's," Erik stated, taking a sip of his cognac.

"I know that, Erik. I gave it to her," Charles responded patiently.

"She told me. It seems like an odd gift for a ten-year-old."

"I can't speak to my state of mind at the time," Charles admitted. "But I imagine that she was not your average ten-year-old."

"I doubt that any of the children were."

"Not ours," Charles amended.

The magnekinetic tilted his head in wordless acknowledgment, his eyes locked on the board. Charles scrutinized his face, took note of the way that he was holding himself: deceptively tensed shoulders, held to give of the impression of casualness; his expression was just as falsely serene. But it, too, was tightly controlled. His eyes gave him away. Charles leaned forward over the board, catching Erik's eye. "It wasn't your fault what happened. You know that."

"Wasn't it?" Erik countered, his voice as even and his manner as collected as before, but his gaze was sharp. "He is a part of me, after all."

"As he is a part of me."

"That's different."

"How? Because he targeted me? Being seen as a threat hardly grants me a pass," Charles insisted in a sharper tone.

Erik took a bigger gulp of his drink and averted his gaze."Onslaught is a composite entity. He is not original. Did you never wonder how a part of you could become that monster?" he ground out, slapping his glass down on the edge of the table.

Charles straightened in his seat and leaned back against the padded armchair. His shining blue eyes locked on Erik's silver. "Never."

* * *

Svartálfheim...

"We will walk from here," Thor announced, vaulting over the side of the skiff.

Loki stepped back from the edge with a rebellious air, watching Jane step forward and gingerly lower herself into Thor's waiting arms. Jane suspected that the younger brother would have his hands perched on his hips right then if he wasn't still chained. Thor placed her on the slight incline beside him and turned to help Loki down as well. He reached up and beckoned Loki closer, but Loki didn't budge, only stared down at him instead.

"Quickly now, Brother. I will catch you," Thor assured him.

"I'm not convinced of your plan." Loki still gave no indication that he intended to join them.

"Loki, you weigh little more than Sif. I could easily lift two of you without much trouble," Thor stated impatiently.

"That is not the plan that I was referring to."

"Don't be difficult. The Convergence will start long before you could ever learn to accept my leadership," Thor pointed out, still holding his arms out to catch the contrary magician.

Loki paused for a second, digesting that assertion before stepping over to the edge. "True," he admitted and dropped into Thor's waiting arms.

"Lighter than Sif!" Thor amended airily before setting him back on his feet next to Jane.

"Very funny," Loki said, turning away to take in their desolate surroundings. "Now about this terrible plan of yours..."

"Loki," Thor cautioned, placing a hand on the side of his neck in a familiar brotherly gesture.

Loki shrugged it off, whipping his head around to snarl at him, "Do not touch me!"

Thor actually flinched away from him, surprised by the dark look in those usually vibrant, green eyes. "Brother..."

Loki blew out a sharp puff of air that was just shy of becoming a growl, and stalked past Jane towards their destination.

"Whoa," Jane breathed, exchanging a WTF look with Thor who took that as his cue to chase after the suddenly enraged Trickster.

"Wait. Slow your pace, Brother," he requested. "Brother!"

Loki spun back around to face him, his expression set in a serene mask. "What is it?"

"I might ask you the same."

"Might you?" Loki replied with false humor, watching Jane jog up the hill to catch up with them.

"You have been behaving strangely ever since we left the dungeons! First there was that pendant, then your outburst, then whatever that was after our arrival in this realm!" Thor snapped. "And now your temper flickers..."

Loki's eyes gradually narrowed as he watched Thor's thought process play out over his features.

"Oh by the- Are you on your moon?"

Loki shook his head and glanced up at the sky as if relating to some power above in regards to the thunderer's idiocy.

"Oh, good," Thor said, visibly relieved.

Jane looked back and forth between the two them, having lost track of the conversation.

Thor opened his mouth to speak.

Loki cut him off, preempting his next tactless question."And no, Thor. I am not in the family way!" he snapped, causing Jane's mouth to fall open a bit when she registered the meaning behind their exchange.

"Wait..." Jane muttered, looking confused and maybe a little curious.

"If I stop questioning your foolish plan will you drop this issue in return?" Loki requested, watching Thor's face intently.

Jane looked back and forth between the two, waiting for a response.

"It is not important," Thor decided, falling into step with Loki as they resumed their journey. Thor tried to start up a conversation again, but it seemed that Loki was back to ignoring him. Eventually, he gave up and did his best to track Jane's endless line of questioning about Yggdrasil and the different realms, and some that seemed to relate to the nature of the universe in general. It wasn't that Thor was stupid (despite Loki's persistent insinuations to the contrary). He simply wasn't familiar with Midgardian science. Nor was he nearly as proficient as either of his brothers in regards to magic, if he was being perfectly honest. Thor Odinson was a warrior, not an explorer, and he was definitely no mage. His understanding of such things consisted mostly of the stories that Balder or their mother had shared with him and half remembered snippets of Loki's ramblings when he got over-exited by a new discovery.

"I mean like this place," Jane continued. "We've been on this planet for about..." she checked her watch, "ten hours, and the light around us hasn't varied at all. Is the planet turning that slowly or... I mean there's no real difference in gravity so..."

Thor was pretty sure that Jane was just thinking aloud at this point, but was relieved that at least he could understand her meaning now. "It is true. This realm is one of darkness. There is said to be no difference throughout most of the year."

"That... Do you know why? I mean the sky looks fairly clear. Won't the sun come into view-"

Loki stalled for a step and sighed, drawing the others' attention back to him. "Really," he chastened looking reproachfully at Thor. He told Jane, "There is no sun," before he resumed walking with a murmur of "Was that difficult?" that was undoubtedly directed at his brother.

Unfortunately, he seemed to have drawn Jane's full attention, because she hastened to keep up with him and more or less demanded, "No sun? What do you mean there's no sun?"

"I thought that was rather self-explanatory," Loki stated, looking back over his shoulder at Thor in a silent bid for him to distract the stubborn researcher.

"But this planet is inhabited. The Dark Elves live here, right? For life to exist there needs to be a light source or at least an energy source. I mean we're orbiting something!" Jane persisted.

"There is obviously a light source. Look around you, Woman. Every realm does not resemble your own. There is no star, as I understand it that is all that you were implying."

"Okay, then what are we orbiting?"

Loki shot Thor a look and gestured for him to step in. It was another old behavior from their youth that was now making a resurgence, but Loki tried not to dwell on that fact.

"This world orbits a dead sun," Thor explained.

"Not a star?" Jane questioned, nonplussed.

Thor shrugged helplessly. "If my brother says that it is not, then it is not. I am uncertain what the Midgardian name is for such a thing. Your people did not understand as much about the night sky when my father and his men last visited," he explained apologetically.

"We've seen stars die," Jane pointed out. "They usually shrink down into red or white dwarf stars unless..." she stopped dead in her tracks and grabbed Loki's arm. "No way! Tell me that we are not riding the event horizon of a black-hole!"

"Is that what you call them?" Loki asked nonchalantly. "We're in no peril, time flows differently throughout many realms." He paused for a moment of reflection. "Now you understand one reason why. Perhaps you should not ask me questions if you will only fear the answers."

Jane stared up at him for a beat. "Nice try." She released her hold on his arm. "So, why doesn't the gravity from the singularity interfere with the Bifrost?"

_Damn. Why did I have to talk?_ Loki internally lamented. To make it worse, Thor was now smiling proudly, pleased by his lover's boldness. "Why not ask your Golden Prince?" Loki quipped.

"I don't know," Thor said, unashamed of his ignorance.

"What does it matter? You mortals still lack the understanding necessary to utilize such magic. I doubt that you would comprehend any explanation that I-"

"Try me," Jane insisted, cutting him off.

"I'd rather not."

"Afraid that I'll prove you wrong?"

"You are not as clever as you think you are."

"Brother..." Thor cautioned.

Loki regarded him for a moment, considering how to respond, then looked back down at the astrophysicist waiting patiently beside him. "Mortals have not yet noticed all that is, and all that can be within this universe," he stated. "There are certain forms and substances that are still missing from your awareness. As is the case with the people of Asgard, as well, though to a far smaller extent."

"Couldn't you just explain it to me?" Jane asked, unaffected by Loki's previous outburst or the confused crinkle of Thor's brow at the mention of their own people's ignorance.

Loki shook his head. "You do not yet possess the language. You are far closer than one might expect, but there are some things that cannot be taught. I can assure you, however, that there is something leaving a 'singularity'. You simply have not observed it yet."

"That would defy the laws of physics..." Jane contemplated. "So how come it doesn't?"

Loki smiled despite himself. "Until you solve the conversion problem, I can speak no more of it by Asgardian law."

"Matter to energy. Probably light, am I right?" Jane thought aloud.

Loki nodded. Okay, he might genuinely like this one. She could actually think. How Thor, of all people, had managed to hold her interest was a question that he could ponder over later.

"We have had some success with that sort of thing in the lab using Stark tech."

Loki arched an eyebrow at her in surprised interest.

"But the cockroach always dies," Jane regretfully admitted.

"Is it not supposed to die?" Thor inquired.

Loki rolled his eyes and left Jane to explain the experiment to the blond warrior. It was too late though, Loki realized. He had missed friendly interactions, as much as he struggled to deny it. He was a bit lonely. He missed just talking to another person without anyone's life or world hanging in the balance. It was nice to imagine that someone might listen to what he had to say for a reason other than that they absolutely had to. _It isn't safe, _he reminded himself, but why should that matter to him? _I can't trust them._

He looked back at Thor and Jane discussing some other question of hers that Thor at least seemed to think that he could answer himself. Then Loki looked into the gray, depressing wasteland ahead of them. He could see a dark spot in the distance that was probably Malekith's domain. It wasn't too far away, but it wasn't close either.

_I know that you're still with me,_ Loki directed towards the presence still hovering at the edge of his mind. _So tell me, what is your name? _There was a contemplative pause that Loki could actually feel being contemplated by the foreign consciousness as He resurfaced.

**I had no intention of hiding from you. It's a pleasure to meet you properly, Loki. My name is Charles.**


	4. Life and Death

**Chapter Four:**** Life and Death**

The movement of a squad of Dӧkkálfar leaving the massive structure ahead was apparent even before the trio made it over the ridge. Loki lagged behind a step, keeping his chained hands held out in front of him while he climbed. Thor turned to face the others once they had all reached the top, and looked to Jane.

"Are you ready?"

Loki opened his mouth to answer before her, but stopped when a thought occurred to him.

_When I die, what will happen to you? _he asked Charles.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Jane answered Thor's question, adding under her breath, "Without knowing the plan..."

**Although your concern is appreciated, Loki, I would rather you didn't preoccupy yourself with my well being. I'm sure that you can and will make it through this,** Charles replied, but the barely noticeable flicker of anxiety in reaction to Loki's question was answer enough.

"Brother?" Thor asked. He and Jane had just noticed the way that Loki had zoned out while they were talking.

"Are you okay?" Jane inquired.

Loki gave her a reassuring nod, but continued to stare off into space. _You require a host, _he thought to Charles, while the others scrutinized him. _I am correct, am I not? That is my true value to you._

**No. It isn't that at all, but you ****have**** figured out why I wasn't going to tell you, **Charles answered despondently. **Whether or not you can accept it, Loki,** **I am genuinely trying to help.**

Loki resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the unlikelihood of that being the case, and shifted his attention to Thor.

"I'm ready," he announced, flashing a grin that didn't reach his eyes. "Despite your imbecilic plan of course."

"When you are in command, we will go with your plan," Thor said simply. Loki brushed past Jane and held his cuffed wrists out in front of him with an expectant expression. His older brother looked down at the cuffs, then up at Loki, arching his eyebrows as if to say 'you think I'm that stupid?'

"Come now, Brother. You still don't trust me?" Loki challenged. Behind him Jane let out an amused scoff. He glanced fleetingly over at her and the venom in his gaze was enough to banish the rest of her humor. She pulled her shawl tighter around herself, suddenly feeling a chill that had nothing to do with their frigid surroundings. This was not the Loki whom she'd met down in the dungeon just a couple of days ago. This was the Loki who had invaded New York.

"Would you?" Thor pointed out. But to Jane's surprise and mounting anxiety, he reached up and removed the chains anyway. Loki flashed him a shallow smile and began to turn away, rubbing at his sore wrists.

"You can't say that I didn't warn you," he joked, whirling back around to steal his daggers off of his brother's belt and stab him with them. Jane let out a startled cry and slapped a hand over her mouth, stumbling back a step. Thor coughed and grabbed Loki's shoulders to keep from collapsing. "L-Loki..."

"Trust is merely weakness," Loki hissed into his ear and shoved him down the hill. He sneered, "You great fool! You truly believed that I would care about avenging your mother's death?"

Jane frowned. That hadn't sounded right to her. Before she could think about it much, Loki had crossed the short distance between them and grabbed her by the hair, dragging her down the hill after Thor. For some reason, it didn't seem to hurt as much as it probably should, but she was hardly going to question that.

"Lord Malekith!" Loki shouted gleefully as he dumped her in front of the waiting crowd of Dӧkkálfar. "I am Loki of Jötunheim, and I have brought you a gift!"

Thor grabbed his hammer to try to fight their way out, but Loki strode over and chopped his hand clean off. The Trickster then spun gracefully around to face Malekith, grinning as if his brother wasn't currently rolling around on the bloody sand behind him screaming.

"All I ask in return is to have a front row seat from which to watch Asgard burn," Loki concluded maliciously.

Malekith ran a searching gaze over the maniacal young prince then looked to the massive warrior standing at his right shoulder. "Algrim?"

"I remember this one from the prison, my Lord. He is no friend of Asgard," Algrim confirmed. Jane was fairly certain that he had been the beast of a man that they had seen in the cells, the one who'd stabbed Queen Frigga.

"Very well," Malekith decided, watching Loki prowl around behind Jane. "I suggest that you take a step back."

Loki inclined his head in thanks and did as instructed.

**Are you absolutely certain that this is a good idea?** Charles questioned doubtfully.

_No. Be silent,_ Loki responded, averting his gaze to the sand for the second that it took to hold their unwanted exchange, then Jane was floating up off the ground. Malekith held one arm outstretched towards her and at his silent bidding, the strange, alien substance gradually began to flow back out of her. Behind her, Loki was watching with rapt attention, but it was neither the Aether nor its master that he was looking at. He waited until the last of the dark liquid/gas had flickered and sparked its way out through Jane's mouth and she was sinking to the sand. Suddenly, Loki surged forward.

"Thor! Do it now!" he shouted, crouching over Jane to become her humanoid shield as Thor jumped to his feet, calling his hammer back into his suddenly-intact hand. He called down a massive surge of lightning to fry the Aether in midair, and didn't stop until it hardened and exploded in a rain of scarlet, crystalline shards.

There was a beat of awed silence, then Jane whispered, "It worked!" sounding surprised. Her relief vanished in the next moment when she caught sight of the way that Loki was casting his gaze around them looking disturbed, perplexed and far too easy to read.

"What is this?" he breathed, looking paler by the second (which is really saying something). "I feel..." all at once Loki realized the only reason that he could be sensing what he was, and his hand went to the place on his chest plate under which the prism rested. _I don't suppose that you were going to mention __this__ to me either, _he told Charles.

**I didn't know.**

Thor was looking around them now, too, his hammer half-raised and ready to fend off the new threat. The little shards of crystal were vibrating more and more until they floated up off the ground and coalesced into the familiar black-and-red cloud that all three travelers were now far too familiar with.

"Impossible," Thor denied, watching the cloud whirl, flex and flow toward Malekith's waiting arms. The Dӧkkálfar leader opened his mouth, preparing to accept the primeval power into himself. Against the expectations of all present, the Aether stopped less than a foot away from his face and curled in on itself, changing direction. It was now headed straight for Loki.

"What the..." Jane muttered, at a loss, and pressed her hands over her mouth and nose when the Aether got too close for comfort.

Loki sat back on his haunches, staring at the approaching... miasma, and taking note of the way that Charles' consciousness immediately recoiled from it. Disgust, fear, pain, unwilling attraction, none of the feedback that Charles was relaying to his host was at all encouraging.

"What is the meaning of this!" Malekith spat.

Loki remained stock still for a beat, weighing the pros and cons of accepting the Aether. He finally came to a conclusion and rolled out of the way when the Aether surged forwards. It was almost as if it had sensed his decision. That was an issue for another time.

Loki spun and darted away. If he could just outrun it, maybe he could figure a way out of this. He had always been fast, after all. Alas, he'd hesitated for too long. The Aether caught him, frozen in mid-step at the bottom of the incline, and held him as stiff and motionless as a statue. It arced over him, pouring in through his eyes, ears, and nose. He didn't appear to be breathing anymore...

"Loki!" Thor exclaimed, starting towards him, but the Dark Elves beat him to it.

"Enough of this!" Malekith roared, storming over to reach out and physically yank the misbehaving fluid towards him with a rough tug. If Loki could have screamed, he would have. As much as the Aether burned him while it forced its way in, having it torn out of him so carelessly was worse. For a split second, his face contorted in pain, then he collapsed on the sand like a marionette with its strings cut.

"Brother!" Thor bellowed and ran towards him. Malekith stalled, battling with the Aether for control, then threw him back with a wave of his hand, sending Thor flying with a flash of searing-hot, red light. He spun on his heels to address his men.

"Kill these two. Bring the jötun boy to me when you're done," he ordered and headed back towards the towering structure behind them without sparing his enemies a passing glance.

**Loki? Loki? Can you hear me?** Charles' worried urging broke through the haze of pain in Loki's mind.** I know. I'm sorry. Just bear with me for a second... **The pain faded away into the background until Loki barely even noticed it anymore. **There, that's better.**

There was a pause while everyone standing behind them considered each other, then Thor let out a battle-cry and zapped several enemies with lightning from Mjölnir. A thunderstorm was brewing overhead despite the fact that it wasn't the type of weather that occurred in this realm. But then Thor did have a phenomenal temper, enough to make one furious God of Thunder vs. ten Dӧkkálfar soldiers look like an even match.

_Well, Thor never was good at silence. _A louder rumble from overhead emphasized Loki's point. The planet itself seemed to agree with the injured Trickster. _He's probably going to trample me soon as I can't move._

**Ah, there you are, **Charles noted, relieved,** I haven't figured that out yet, but I'm working on it. **There was an uncertain pause. **You don't mind, do you?**

_Are you questioning whether I mind if you cure my paralysis?_

**Well. It's sometimes hard to tell with you,** Charles stated. Loki could feel the consciousness exploring different parts of his brain. It was disorienting, but he wasn't in any position to complain.

"Thor! We have to get out of here!" they heard Jane shout.

_Good luck with that,_ Loki thought to himself. _Thor never turns down a good fight. _

"THOR!" she shouted louder, running towards Loki.

_ And, there you are._ _I_ c_ould have told her not to bother, __if I could move!_Loki pushed.

**Impatience will get you everywhere,** Charles responded in a gentle tone.

_ Was that sarcasm? Now? While we wait to be slaughtered. As Thor is too impulsive to flee, Jane will be of no use in battle, and __I__ am- _Loki's internal rant was interrupted by a Dark Elf tripping over him and stamping on his hand. _Ah! CURSED LUMMOX! DAMN HIM TO THE DEEPEST PITS OF MUSPELHEIM! BLOODY, __FIERY__ DEA— Charles, stop laughing. This is your fault._

** No it isn't. Anyway, I've almost found it.**

Jane knocked out the soldier with a shield she had picked up at some point during her dash towards them, throwing her whole body into the blow. She immediately lost the measure of Loki's esteem that the act gained her when she let go of the weapon, and dropped to her knees in front of him to check for a pulse.

"He's alive!" Jane shouted to someone off to the right, presumably Thor, beginning to look for signs of an injury. Then she caught sight of something else past Loki's back and stiffened. There was a trail of blood down her left forearm and Loki could hear someone stalking towards them. That must be what frightened her. "Thor?!" She shifted her gaze from Thor to whoever was marching toward them, beginning to panic. "THOR! Come on..." When patting Loki's cheek wouldn't snap him out of it, Jane slipped her arms under his to try to move him with no success. "Damnit! I'm not even strong enough to drag you."

_I know,_ Loki responded internally, despite the fact that she couldn't hear it.

Instead of running (which was Jane's only practical option in Loki's opinion) Jane bit her lip, grabbed the stolen shield, and leaned over to cover him as best she could. Instead of the attack that he had expected, Loki heard a familiar rush of air, followed by the sound of an impact close behind him.

**You are such a pessimist,** Charles noted amiably.

Thor had tackled their would be attacker and was now punching him repeatedly in the face, if Loki wasn't horribly mistaken. A warmth spread through his body, shifting into that intense, prickly feeling one gets when a limb has fallen asleep - except that it was throughout his entire body! Jane sat bolt upright at the sound of his huge gasp.

"Nghhh!" Loki shuddered, while Charles tried to console him by pointing out that, **At least the pain is gone.**

"Oh thank God! Are you okay?" Jane exclaimed. Shaking her head, she corrected herself, "Of course you're not okay."

Loki wasn't listening. He was looking for something to kill. He looked over at the fight going on to his other side just in time to see his mother's killer, Algrim, knock Thor to the ground. Thor tried to call Mjölnir into his hand, but Algrim slapped it out of the air -something that he shouldn't have been able to do.

_ He dies, _Loki decided. His muscles were still weak and trembling like the limbs of a newborn calf, but that didn't matter; Algrim hadn't noticed that he was awake yet. He was too focused on the desperate looking Aesir that he thought he'd cornered; also Loki was just that epically enraged. He stretched one trembling arm out towards the Kursed soldier and hurled a blast of poison-green energy at Algrim. It hit the very center of his chest and exploded through him with a flash that had all of them shielding their eyes.

"Are you alright?" Thor semi-demanded, rushing over to them as soon as the light had faded. Loki flopped back down on the cold sand and let his eyes fall shut, assuming that he meant only Jane.

"It's a shallow cut, nothing serious," Jane assured, with an energetic nod. Loki was beginning to feel like he was floating. _I can't afford to lose consciousness. We aren't finished yet..._he noted without any conviction.

"Brother!"

Loki jolted in surprise and his eyes flew open. Thor was a lot closer than he had been a second ago.

"Where are you injured?" Thor said in a forceful way that made it obvious this wasn't the first time he had asked.

"Ah," Loki said, mulling the question over. "No idea."

Thor and Jane exchanged displeased looks over his now shivering torso.

"I may have merely been drained," Loki offered in his version of an encouraging voice. It was not that encouraging.

"Great," Jane spat and surged to her feet to start pacing in and out of his line of sight. "What the hell are we going to do now?!"

"Can you stand?" Thor queried in the voice that he usually reserved for directing the Allfather's troops.

"No."

Thor nodded decisively, scooped Loki up and balanced the protesting Trickster across his shoulders.

"No. Thor, put me down this instant!"

"We do not have the time to wait for you to regain your strength," Thor reasoned and stood up.

"Why not just leave me? I'll only slow you down," Loki argued in clipped tones.

"Stop being so dramatic. I am certain that we will find a healer for you soon enough."

Loki glared at the ground. He didn't really have the energy for an extended debate on the subject, and Thor had already started walking. Loki fell asleep before they reached the caves, despite the others' poking or prodding him every once in a while to try and keep him conscious.

When he woke up again, he was lying in an unfamiliar bed with the sound of arguing voices trickling in from the adjacent room. _Where are we? _he thought, sleepily taking stock of his surroundings, but Charles remained silent. There was an unfamiliar, armed man, in a tailored gray suit reclining in the desk chair on his right. _So we've reached Midgard somehow._ Loki barely registered his presence, as he appeared to be asleep.

Loki was in a simple, twin-sized bed with blue cotton sheets that matched the sky-blue walls of the bedroom and contrasted dramatically with the stranger's fiery hair. The dark blue comforter matched the folding doors to the closet on his left. They were open halfway, leaving an assortment of women's sweaters and other cold-weather apparel in sight. _Ah, Dr. Foster's room,_ he concluded.

Loki heard Thor's voice respond to one of the unidentified speakers in the other room as he reached up to push the blankets away from his chest. Someone had changed him into a pair of black cotton sweatpants and attached a sticky circular device to the top right side of his bare chest. He was pretty sure that it was a sensor of some sort. _Monitoring my heart-rate_, he concluded, then realized what was missing. Loki sat bolt upright and patted a hand over his chest in a pointless search. His pendant was gone. That was the reason for Charles' silence. Someone had stolen Charles. Loki gritted his teeth and moved to tear the sensor off of his chest.

"I'd rather you didn't," remarked an unexpected baritone, causing Loki to still with his hand hovering over the sensor. His eyes snapped to the the man watching him intently from his seat in the light gray armchair.

"Where is it?" Loki demanded, cursing the way that his gravelly-sounding voice cracked halfway through the sentence.

"Where is what?" the mortal replied smoothly. His expression was expertly controlled, giving almost nothing away. This man was a professional liar, and a clever one at that. Loki could see it in his eyes. Loki let his gaze wander over the mortal's face, then studied his posture, his weapon, the tailored suit that he wore, learning everything that he needed to know.

"My mistake, Agent. It's clear that you have nothing that interests me," Loki dismissed, lying back against the pillows in a deceptively relaxed manner. "I wish to speak with my brother."

"I thought you said that I didn't have anything that you wanted."

"You don't have Thor," Loki corrected, surprised by his own vehemence. "He has merely chosen to assist your kind, not you, specifically. Your organization would do well to remember that fact."

A corner of the agent's mouth quirked upward in approval. "Hang on a mo'," he quipped, overemphasizing his barely-apparent accent. Loki hadn't even registered its similarity to Charles' until then, but he was startled out of that train of thought when the young man exited the room in a blur of inhuman speed. He then returned to his seat a minute later in the same fashion, smiling at the surprise on Loki's face.

"I'm not your first mutant, am I?" he joked.

Loki opened his mouth to reply, but instead shifted his attention to Thor's arrival.

"Brother! You're awake!"

"Astute as ever," Loki quipped, covering his discomfort with sarcasm.

Thor ignored it and sat down on the edge of the bed. Loki tried to dodge Thor's hand when he reached out to cup Loki's cheek, but wasn't quick enough, and was forced to endure his overprotective scrutiny.

"Thor."

"You look pale."

"I always look pale," Loki argued, pulling out of his grip. "What have I missed?"

"Jane and I were able to escape without any serious injury," Thor assured him.

Loki shot him a withering look. "Don't be dull. What of Malekith?"

"Jane and Dr. Selvig have a plan."

"And?" Loki prompted, tilting his head to watch Thor's face when he looked guiltily away. "Brother?"

"You need not concern yourself."

"Thor!" Loki protested.

"You will remain here under Agent Maxwell's watch while we-" Thor informed him, no longer willing to meet his eye.

"You cannot face him alone!" Loki interrupted.

"-enact Dr. Selvig's plan," Thor continued without acknowledging his argument. "I will return for you once the battle is over."

"No. Thor, this is madness! Whatever you and your allies may think of me. You know that I can help you!"

"Loki, I have made my decision," Thor stated.

"Then rethink it! You have seen what the Aether is capable of!"

"Loki..."

"The power of Mjolnir will not be enough to vanquish this foe! He wants me, you can use me to-"

"Loki! Enough!" Thor finally snapped, grabbing him by the shoulders. Loki opened his mouth to keep arguing, but Thor talked over him. "You are not well. You will remain here, where it is safe, and you will rest," he said, punctuating each statement with a gentle shake.

Loki just stared at him. For once he was at a loss for words. After a pregnant pause, Thor looked past him to the SHIELD Agent still sitting quietly in the armchair.

"I need a moment alone with my brother."

Agent Maxwell nodded and left the room without a word. Loki was still staring at Thor, trying to process the unexpected show of concern.

"What is Malekith's interest in you?" Thor asked him in a calmer tone.

Loki shook his head, absently reaching up to worry the pendant that held his prism, only to be reminded of its loss. "I don't... The Aether was drawn to me. It wanted me, not him..." He scowled down at the empty place where the pendant ought to be.

"It was important to you," Thor recalled, watching Loki's empty hand fall onto his lap. "Why?"

"It doesn't matter now," Loki said dejectedly. He wasn't even sure of the answer himself. He had no logical reason to miss Charles, but he still felt somewhat lost without the familiar presence in his mind. Loki had never had many friends of his own, and the pendant itself... He clenched his jaw, not wanting to be so sentimental. _It was __only__ a piece of metal. Liar._

"It mattered to you," Thor countered. "You would not have gone back to retrieve it if that weren't so."

Loki hesitated for a moment, considering his answer. He didn't particularly want to tell Thor about the prism. Keeping Charles a secret was half the fun of knowing him. "It..." A sad smile broke over Loki's face when he recalled the night that he had gotten the pendant. "I stole it from Mother," he admitted to half of the truth, surprised by how much the memory affected him. "She knew. I could tell that I had been discovered, but she never..." He shrugged and turned away from Thor to look out at the damaged cityscape outside the window, blinking away unshed tears. "I lost it."

Thor paused to study him, probably trying to decipher whether or not he was lying. Then he took one of Loki's hands and held it palm up between them, causing Loki to turn and give him a questioning look. "The others wanted to make sure that you had not hidden anything dangerous on your person," Thor explained, pulling something out of a pouch on his belt with his free hand. "I thought that they might take it from you if it was discovered." He lowered the long silver chain into Loki's palm and closed his fingers around it. A single tear fell as Loki gasped at the familiar sensation that rushed up through his arm from the point where his skin touched the prism.

**Loki? Oh, dear... Are you alright?** Charles inquired, instantly noticing that he was upset.

Loki looked out the window again, acting like he was trying to hide that he was crying while he responded, _I'm just fine, although I might be in SHEILD custody soon, due to Thor's shortsightedness, _and offered Charles a look at his most recent memories (except the part about maybe missing him a little).

Thor reached up and rested a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Little Brother."

"Don't," Loki cut in sharply, offended by Thor's inappropriate appeal. "I am your prisoner, remember? Not your brother."

Thor squeezed his shoulder. "You will always be my brother."

Loki refused to respond, stubbornly keeping his gaze locked on the view outside Jane's window. It looked like someone had gone and given London a black eye in his absence. The observation was rather distracting now that it had occurred to him.

"I will see you upon my return," Thor promised and got up to rejoin Jane and the others out in the living room. When Agent Maxwell returned to his seat a few minutes later, Loki was already curled up under the covers, pretending to sleep. It seemed to be working for a while. Loki heard someone come to stand in the doorway.

"Dr. Foster," Agent Maxwell greeted, shutting the book that he'd been reading.

"Hey. How is he?" Jane inquired more quietly. Another point for the woman, in Loki's opinion. At least she was being considerate. Loki could feel that Charles was amused by that observation, since he wasn't actually even trying to sleep.

"His heart-rate and electrolyte levels seem to be back to normal," Maxwell informed Jane. There was a brief pause, after which he continued at a slightly lower volume. "He should recover completely once he gets some rest."

"Malekith might come after him while we're gone..." Jane said, and Loki heard a rustle of fabric as she shifted uncomfortably.

"In which case, he will have to contend with me," Maxwell stated.

_Is that meant to be reassuring?_ Loki thought incredulously.

"Of course..." Jane said, echoing the sentiment, although she was trying to be tactful about it.

**He may be more competent than you expect**, Charles remarked knowingly.

_What are you not telling me?_

**I think he prefers to give that impression.**

"Listen," Jane began, seeming to contemplate her words as she spoke. "Agent Maxwell, you should know something."

"Yes, Doctor?"

_You __know__ him! _Loki realized.

"I don't think that Loki is as bad as he seems," Jane faltered, probably in response to the agent's skepticism. "I'm not trying to say that he's an innocent. I think that there's a lot that we don't know about him, and he tries to seem nastier than he is. I just... I don't want him to die because no one gave him the benefit of the doubt."

**Yes, quite well, **Charles confirmed.** I also trust him.**

_As you trust me,_ Loki challenged, in the awkward silence that had fallen over the room.

**I trust you to be yourself,** Charles amended, and Loki tried not to acknowledge his own disappointment.

"I'll keep that in mind," Maxwell finally replied, sounding unexpectedly sincere.

"Okay. Um... Thanks," Jane said, sounding as nonplussed by his reaction as Loki was. "I uh, I have to go..."

"Good Luck, Dr. Foster," Agent Maxwell responded, sounding a tad amused. There was relative silence for a while, broken by the sound of the door opening and closing when the others left to face down Malekith. Loki figured that he was going to be stuck lying in bed for a while with nothing but Charles' company to distract him, when he felt a pair of feet being perched on his knees. He hesitated for a beat, hearing Charles' chuckle in his mind. Then he pulled his legs out from under the invading indigo loafers. The owner of said loafers didn't even lower his book to acknowledge the withering look that Loki sent his way.

"How rude of me," he stated, turning a page in 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?" Maxwell responded, feigning innocence. Then he dropped the act, snapping his book shut and placing it on the desk beside him."Your brother warned me about your insomnia. He also mentioned your propensity for feigning sleep in order to avoid social interaction."

"Then it is good that we understand each other," Loki replied, with a fake smile and rolled onto his back, beginning to project random patterns of light across the ceiling.

"Very mature," Maxwell observed.

"It passes the time," Loki drawled, drawing the many colors whirling across the ceiling together to form a dragon the size of a house cat in the air above him. He directed the peacock-colored creature in little spiraling patterns over the bed.

"Yes, very nice. My sister used to say the same thing," Maxwell responded in a similarly bored tone. "...when we were twelve."

Loki paused in mid-gesture, surprised, and looked over at the other man.

"Mutants, remember?" Maxwell reminded him.

"Can you do so as well?"

"No," the agent shook his head and watched Loki's dragon repeat its previous flightpath out of a lack of further direction. "I'm just a speedster. Wanda's the genius."

"Are you certain that it's wise to mention her to an enemy such as me?"

The speedster chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "You're not my enemy yet," he pointed out, and smiled. "Besides, she'd see you coming."

"Is that so?" Loki said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, yes."

Loki could hear the pride in the younger man's voice. He also got an odd feeling that he'd meant the declaration literally.

**He did**, Charles stated.

"A seer?" Loki considered aloud, although he was asking Charles as much as he was asking Agent Maxwell. The speedster shrugged while Charles expressed disapproval over the flicker of greed he had sensed in Loki's mind.

"So tell me, last time you were on this planet you tried to invade New York," Maxwell prompted.

"If you are expecting an apology, you will be sorely disappointed," Loki drawled, directing the dragon to fly over and explore the closet. Charles sent out a little burst of calm and safety in response to Loki's carefully masked anxiety at the mention of the Chitauri invasion. Loki chose not to openly acknowledge that, either, as he was uncertain how to do so.

"I wasn't. I just wondered if you might want to explain yourself," Agent Maxwell said lightly, as though he didn't care either way.

"I would expect you to be far less forgiving after I murdered your comrade."

"Who's that then?"

"I believe that his name was Coulson?" Loki intoned as though he didn't have the man's name and face perfectly memorized.

"What, Phil?"

Loki hummed an affirmative and drew the dragon out through the slats in the closet door, causing it to burst into a cloud of many differently-colored butterflies.

"You didn't," Maxwell corrected, holding out a finger for a violet colored butterfly to land on. "But I imagine that he is still very cross with you."

"What!?" Loki turned on him, causing a few of the butterflies to flicker out of existence in his shock.

"Phil's fine. I just talked with him a few hours ago when he informed me of this assignment," Agent Maxwell said, blowing on the projected butterfly so that it fluttered away towards the door. He locked his blue-gray eyes on Loki's. "I couldn't help but wonder what I'd done to piss him off. Nothing personal."

"So you say."

"Honestly. It's got nothing to do with you. I'm a mutant, in London_,_" Maxwell said meaningfully. "I can understand why he wouldn't send Barton on this one, but it's not as though he's the only human operative available."

"I don't know what that means."

Agent Maxwell tilted his head, accepting his point. "Well you weren't really interested in politics during your last visit. Many people here on Earth still have trouble accepting those they view as different."

Loki looked up at the ceiling, schooling his expression, and vanished all of the butterflies with a wave of his hand.

"Hmm," Agent Maxwell clapped once before rubbing his palms together. "How about a bite to eat? Darcy was passing around some tasty-looking biscuits earlier. I expect there might be a few of them left over."

"What's a biscuit?" Loki inquired halfheartedly.

"Oh, it's a kind of a sweet... They call them cookies back in America, but I suppose I've picked up a few of Mummy's eccentricities."

Loki arched an inquisitive eyebrow, only becoming more curious at Charles' amused, almost affectionate-feeling reaction to the mention of 'Mummy.' Agent Maxwell gave a dismissive wave of his hand and went to fetch the biscuits.

_Charles?_

**It's a long story, and I'm not sure that this is the best time-** Charles' response was interrupted when the window suddenly exploded inward. Loki only just rolled off of the bed in time to avoid being hit. He tore the sensor off of his chest and rolled to his feet to see Thor and Malekith fall against Jane's desk, destroying it while they wrestled.

"What the..." Agent Maxwell said, appearing in the doorway with a plate of chocolate hobnobs. Loki grabbed a lamp off of the bedside table and smashed it over the Dökkálfar's head. Malekith fell onto his back on the floor between the three of them, momentarily stunned.

"Thank you," Thor panted, then registered where he was. "Loki?"

Loki gave him a little sarcastic wave.

"Care to explain?" Agent Maxwell requested, taking a bite out of one of the biscuits from the plate he was still holding.

"Time-space distortions..." Thor quoted, bending down to grab Malekith by the collar of his cloak.

Malekith let out a malicious chuckle and blasted Thor through the wall behind him with another burst of scarlet energy. He leapt to his feet and turned to leer at Loki, completely ignoring Agent Maxwell's existence. The SHEILD Agent set the plate of cookies on the nearby dresser and shot the Dark Elf in the head, only succeeding in making him stumble a few steps to one side before the Aether repaired the damage. Malekith glanced at him fleetingly, hurling him away with another blast of energy.

"You don't really need me," Loki stalled, taking a step back when Malekith began to prowl towards him. Malekith cocked his head to the side in a predatory manner. _This really is typical circumstances for my life now, isn't it, _Loki grumbled internally. _Just when I had come to accept that my fate was to reside in Asgard's prison, Thor breaks me out and drags me halfway across Yggdrassil so that I can become prey for some insane Elf King. Why?! What have I ever done to the Norns?!_

**...What?** Charles responded.

_Exactly!_

"You possess far more power than you have any right to. How is that?" Malekith questioned, taking another step closer, so that he now had the Trickster backed up against the wall.

Loki just gave him a wry little shrug, not even bothering to make his denial seem convincing. "Surely it is of no concern to you in this enhanced state. You possess enough power to bring the nine realms to their knees. I should seem naught but a gifted child by comparison."

"You're probably right, nonetheless your brother will miss you dearly," Malekith taunted and lunged forward, grabbing Loki by the throat. Loki fought him and struggled to draw in a breath, but the Dökkálfar leader had become too impossibly strong. "Or if not, it will be my pleasure to know that I have slain the youngest son of Odin."

* * *

**A/N:** Yay! We finally made it to Earth/Midgard! I hope it was to your liking. I must admit I'll be very relieved once I'm completely free of the vestiges of the Thor 2 story line (like the movie and all, it's just more fun to write my own plot). Anyway, thanks for reading this guys. Special thanks to _icanhearthedrums_ and _XaviersLover_ for reviewing. Feedback is always welcome.


	5. Odin's Son

**Chapter Five: ****O****din's Son**

"You possess far more power than you have any right to. How is that?" Malekith questioned, taking another step closer so that he now had the Trickster backed up against the wall.

Loki just gave him a wry little shrug, not even bothering to make his denial seem convincing. "Surely it is of no concern to you in this enhanced state. You possess the power to bring the nine realms to their knees, and I should seem naught but a gifted child by comparison."

"You're probably right, nonetheless your brother will miss you dearly," Malekith taunted and lunged forward, grabbing Loki by the throat. Loki fought him and struggled to draw in a breath, but the Dökkálfar leader had become too impossibly strong. "Or if not, it will be my pleasure to know that I have slain the youngest son of Odin."

Loki grabbed desperately at his attacker, still struggling to breathe, and changed tactics. He sent three dazzlingly-bright pulses of raw energy out of his core. The white-hot blasts scorched the skin right off of the flesh it contacted, cracking the dark elf's armor and causing spirals of thick smoke to billow off of his smoldering cloak. He was mending himself too rapidly for Loki to prevail, and although Loki did manage to gain himself a chance to breathe, it didn't last. In the distance, he could hear Thor yelling something, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. Mjölnir came flying at Malekith's head, but he deflected it without looking. _Seriously, __how__ does that keep happening?_ Loki's muddled mind demanded indignantly.

**Please, focus. You can get out of this. I know you can,** Charles urged, seeming oddly distant. Loki snapped out of his strange haze.

_Of course he does. We're being murdered!_ he realized, growing angry. _And neither one of us is a __son __of __Odin_. Light from the prism was beginning to shine out from behind the flickering illusion that he had cast over his chest as it was disrupted by the building power of the Aether.

Malekith's eyes zeroed in on the source of light and he reached towards it with the hand he wasn't using to strangle Loki. Greed and fascination shone in his dark eyes, but Loki caught his reaching hand before he could grasp his prize. He then grabbed the side of his would-be-murderer's face that Thor hadn't already scarred with his lightning. Malekith smirked at Loki's apparently useless attempt at resistance and tightened his grip.

Just as the world around him was fading into darkness, Loki's skin began to change. His porcelain complexion was replaced by a sweeping shadow of deep sapphire, and ridges etched themselves in ornate patterns all over his face, arms, and chest. Malekith scowled uncertainly at the transformation. Loki's blood red eyes snapped open to bore into the Dökkálfar leader's as his flesh began to freeze.

"No! You stupid little boy!" Malekith hissed, even as his grip on the jötun prince began to falter. "You think that a little ice could be enough to stop me?!"

Loki's gaze shifted to focus on something over Malekith's shoulder.

"Not just ice," a roughened baritone corrected, affecting an air of nonchalance.

Loki shoved Malekith into the speedster's waiting arms, and with a blur of motion, Agent Maxwell hurled him out through the destroyed wall. He looked on with appreciation as Thor snatched Malekith out of the air before he could land, and flung him into an SUV parked nearby with enough force to fold it nearly in half. The speedster gave him a mock salute and turned back to check on the still-jötun-Loki coughing and gasping, on the floor. Agent Maxwell walked over and knelt down beside him, but stopped just short of patting the alien's back when he flinched away from the touch.

"Might hurt you," Loki gasped out in warning.

"Ah," Agent Maxwell acknowledged and sat back on his haunches, waiting for Loki to catch his breath without further comment. Once he had, Loki turned to study him inquisitively.

"It doesn't bother you," he observed.

"You'll need to be more specific."

"My appearance. You're taking it... unusually well."

Agent Maxwell shrugged. "You look a bit like a friend of mine, but you don't have a tail."

"You are a rather peculiar creature, aren't you Agent Maxwell?" Loki observed appreciatively.

"That's what the voices in my head keep telling me."

Loki furrowed his brow at the strange remark while his cerulean coloring was swept away by a wave of white.

"Joking."

"Ah," Loki acknowledged, his deep red eyes swirling back to their usual striking green.

"You might as well call me Peter, by the way," the Agent stated, "Or Quicksilver, I suppose, if you absolutely insist on formality."

"Hmmm. Peter," Loki repeated, trying the name out on his tongue.

They fell into an almost companionable silence, both gazing out through the hole in the outer wall. Agent Maxwell let his gaze wander around them, taking in the scorch-marks on the walls left by the shock-waves Loki had emitted in his uncontrolled resistance, and the debris those shock-waves had scattered across the floor around them. Neither of them was feeling confident that the top hinge of Jane's bedroom door, which Loki had half snapped and half melted was capable of repair.

"Dr. Foster won't be happy about all this property damage," Agent Maxwell noted. There was a beat of silence.

"It's Thor's fault," Loki said easily. The agent regarded him for a moment, then they both burst out laughing.

Peter and Loki shared a look.

"Living room?" Peter suggested.

"Living room," Loki agreed, accepting the hand that Peter held out to him in order to help him up. He only managed to get halfway to standing before his legs buckled underneath him and he fell to his knees, nearly dragging the speedster down on top of him.

"Whoa!" Peter stumbled forward a half-step before regaining his equilibrium.

"Give me a moment," Loki muttered, blinking the white haze from his vision.

"You are a lot heavier than you look."

"You should count yourself lucky. A true Aesir such as Thor, holds an even more condensed mass," Loki noted.

"I'll have to remember that. You alright?"

Loki nodded irritably. "Merely a touch lightheaded," he lied. That last encounter with Malekith had depleted the rest of his reserves. He doubted that he would be capable of maintaining even a simple illusion for more than a few minutes if he came under attack within the near future.

**We'll handle that problem together, if and when it occurs,** Charles reassured. **Bear in mind, Peter is very good at what he does.**

* * *

Jane ran flat out through the breezeway with Eric Selvig following only a couple of steps behind her. He was getting weighed down by the tripods that he was still dragging around with them.

"We need to get to the epicenter now if we're going to stop this!" Selvig shouted redundantly. By now they were all horribly aware of how much was at stake. It wasn't just about Malekith, or Thor, or even the fate of the planet Earth. If they didn't finish this quickly, there were eight other worlds that were going to be snuffed right out of existence along with them, without any warning, or even a chance to fight for their survival. Everyone was going to die, on the whim of some vengeful megalomaniac.

"I know! You got any ideas on how we're supposed to get there?" Jane shouted back over the sound of gathering storm-clouds and other, more alien chaos going on overhead.

"I'm not sure yet," Dr. Selvig admitted.

"Yeah, me neither. Where the hell is- Darcy!" Jane exclaimed, skidding to a halt, just short of toppling the temp - who'd just appeared out of nowhere - making out with her own 'temp's temp'.

"Dr. Foster!" Ian gasped in embarrassment, right before he was absentmindedly dropped by Darcy.

"Ethan!" Jane greeted, wincing in sympathy, then ducked when Mjölnir flew past her out of nowhere.

"Meow-meow!" Darcy exclaimed, watching the weapon soar away. "Wait. If that's here, where's-"

The God of Thunder dropped out of the sky a few yards away to land in a crouch, catching his hammer in the same instant and smashing a small impact crater into the pavement in the process. He looked around, spotted them all, and cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Oh, right...Thor!" Darcy belatedly exclaimed, drawing sidelong glances from the other mortals, and a mildly confused one from Thor himself. "What? Don't want to leave him out, right?" She flashed him a grin and an enthusiastic thumbs up. "We still love you, Buddy!"

Thor shifted his questioning gaze from Darcy to Jane. She rolled her eyes, and shook her head at her friend's antics.

"My friends! We must make haste! Malekith has nearly reached full strength, and I am uncertain of how much longer I will be able to hold him at bay," Thor informed them, glancing around him warily as he made his way towards them.

"We need to plant this at the very center of the distortions if we're going to stabilize the alignment," Selvig explained, holding up the tripods. "It will still take us some time to navigate around all of the distortions."

"I fear that our foe will not be foiled by such... restraints," Thor mused with a dark look on his face.

"Speaking of which, where is the Big Bad, anyway?" Darcy thought aloud. As if on cue, Malekith came running out of what should have been a solid wall a little way behind Thor's back. Luckily, he was preoccupied, as anyone might be with the talons of something that looked massive, unfriendly, and more than a little bit on fire making a grab for his cloak. "Whoa, holy crap! How do I keep doing that?" Darcy said, slapping her hands over her cheeks. "It's like I can summon people now or something!"

"Please God, don't give Darcy superpowers," Jane muttered to the heavens, while Thor charged Malekith.

"Hey!" Darcy objected.

"You wouldn't use them responsibly," Selvig reasoned, distracted by re-calibrating the tracker that he and Jane were using to monitor the distortions.

"I would- Well, no. I totally wouldn't," Darcy admitted, watching with Jane while Thor used his hammer to ram Malekith through a stone wall, only to be thrown backwards by a blast of red.

"Have you found a way through?" Jane asked Dr. Selvig, sneaking a peek over his shoulder before snapping her gaze back to the battle being fought in front of them.

"I think I'm getting close..."

"No worries, Thor's keeping the bad guy pretty busy," Darcy remarked.

Malekith lunged forward and tackled Thor a second after she'd spoken, knocking them through another soft-spot that had been hidden in the lawn and out of sight.

"...And there he goes," Darcy amended, looking uncertainly around at the others while they started to follow Dr. Selvig towards their goal. "Do you think that's bad?"

"I don't know. I hope not. Let's just try to be-" Jane stopped short and looked around when she realized that Darcy and Ian seemed to have disappeared while she was talking. "...careful."

"They'll be fine," Dr. Selvig assured, sounding like he might be trying to convince himself.

Jane nodded with new determination. "Let's get this over with."

Unfortunately, when they reached the epicenter they discovered that Malekith had returned through another soft spot, while Thor had not. Jane tried not to think about what that might mean as they tried to find a way through the black cloud of destructive energy Malekith was funneling around him. They retreated – after three tries to brave the smoke had made it clear that doing so would either result in being electrocuted, smothered to death by black smoke, or electrocuted and smothered death by black smoke. To top it all off, Malekith was now doing the evil psychopath laugh, and Jane really didn't appreciate the sentiment. _He isn't even that good at it, _Jane reflected, then frowned at her own strangeness. _Wow, it's only been three days and Loki's eccentricity's already rubbing off on me._

"That's probably not a good sign," Jane finished aloud.

"What?" Dr. Selvig asked.

"I was just thinking," Jane dismissed, relieved to see Thor flying into the courtyard to join them. "Hey, good timing," she greeted, giving him a quick hug,

"Thank you. How goes the effort?"

"It's not good. Malekith found the epicenter. We've tried, but we can't get through to stop him," Selvig reported. Thor nodded business-like.

"I can," he said simply, looking into the crackling spiral of smoke and debris with a murderous look in his eyes. He took the leftover tripods from Dr. Selvig and marched purposefully into the darkness.

"We should probably get back to a safe distance..." Selvig observed, staring at the point where Thor had just vanished.

"Uh-huh," Jane said sounding dazed, and he herded her back towards the building. They caught glimpses of Thor's red cape, or flashes of lightning while the two aliens fought, and then the courtyard seemed to explode. Thor went flying to land on his back on the lawn while Malekith dropped lifelessly into the disappearing cloud and vanished.

"Thor!" Jane screamed when she noticed the Dökkálfar ship falling toward him, running forward to throw herself on top of her unconscious Thunder God.

"Jane! No!" Selvig called after her, but instead of being crushed under tons of unforgiving metal, Jane looked up to see nothing but foggy English sky overhead. Well, that and a harassed-looking pigeon whose flight pattern hinted at the rather nasty shock it had just undergone. _The harrow must have fallen through one of the closing distortions,_ Jane realized, and let out a giddy burst of laughter.

"Jane?" Thor murmured, blinking his eyes open.

"It's over," Jane said happily. "You did it!" and leaned down for a celebratory snog. When she pulled back, Thor was staring dazedly into space. Jane couldn't help but feel a little smug about that.

"Nice! I give that a 9.8," Darcy's voice remarked from directly behind her.

"Darcy!" Jane said, trying to calm her racing heart. "How long have you been standing there?"

"I dunno. When did you start kissing him?"

"Really?" Jane replied. Thor sat up, drawing their attention back to him. He looked inexplicably wary for someone who'd just saved several worlds from annihilation.

"We must go," he stated and helped Jane to her feet.

"Thor, what's wrong?" Jane asked him quietly.

"I must see my brother."

Jane nodded, but she was still watching him questioningly.

"I do not believe that the danger has truly passed. There was something that Malekith said. It... troubles me."

* * *

Darcy turned onto Jane's street and blanched. "Oh, sh-!" Her foot stamped down on the brakes at the sight of the swarm of heavily-armed soldiers in combat gear, and equally jet-black armored vehicles flooding the area.

Jane's saucer-wide eyes examined the scene in front of them and sure enough, there was that dreaded eagle patch adorning the right arm of each uniform. "It's a setup. Back out!" she announced, just as a few of the closest soldiers registered their presence and started towards them. Darcy didn't need to be told twice. She instantly shifted into reverse, backing away as rapidly as possible.

"OhdearLord!" Ian cried, clinging to the nearest handhold for dear life.

"Suck it up, you pansy," Darcy dismissed as she swung them into a sharp spin that would've made 007 proud, refusing to acknowledge the few bullets that ricocheted off the front of the vehicle. The oncoming SHIELD personnel were trying to shoot out the tires, but the temp's surprisingly skillful stunt driving wasn't allowing it.

"But Loki!" Thor protested, grabbing the door handle, only to be foiled by Darcy's deft application of the child-safety locks.

"I'm sorry Thor, but it's too late for him," Dr. Selvig responded, trying to be gentle.

"No. Go on without me if you must. I will not abandon him!"

"Um..." Darcy looked uncertainly over at Jane even though she was still speeding.

"Eyes on the road, please," Jane prompted, then turned back to face the reluctant aesir. "Listen Thor, we're not going to abandon him. We'll figure something out once we've lost these guys. I promise. Getting ourselves captured isn't going to do him any favors."

"We are allies of SHIELD, surely we can reason with them, and come to some understanding," Thor argued.

Darcy let out an unladylike snort. "Yeah, right."

"It's not that simple," Jane told him. She caught herself with an arm pressed to her window as Darcy swerved into an alley.

"This is it. We're going to die," Ian reflected.

Dr. Selvig patted his arm comfortingly, but ended up clinging to him a second later when Darcy spun the car around again, more or less doubling back on their original course.

"Oh!" Jane gasped in shock. "Okay, please don't do that again."

"Dude. Trust me. I know what I'm doing," Darcy stated, sounding self-assured.

"How, exactly?" Ian questioned. Dr. Selvig looked like he was equally curious to know, himself.

"Oh, you know. I had fun in high school," Darcy answered, slipping them right past one of their pursuers, just inches from scraping the side of the car against the larger vehicle. She then swerved onto a side street before the other vehicles could account for her previous course correction.

* * *

Inside Jane's apartment, two muscular and patently unfriendly-looking soldiers moved to haul Loki up off the couch, but Peter stepped in between them. The taller of the two ground his teeth, but his compatriot held up a hand in a semi-placating gesture.

"I'm going to have to ask you to stand down, Sir. We have orders to escort the prisoner into secure custody," he said, ignoring the other soldier's attitude.

"I wasn't informed."

"I can't speak to that, Sir."

"You'll have to do better than that, Lieutenant," Peter countered. His expression had become utterly inscrutable, but there was a hint of bite to his normally affable voice. "On whose authority?"

"I'm sorry, Sir. I'm not at liberty to share that information."

"How strange. You behave as if you've forgotten my authority over you, and yet, you repeatedly allude to my superior rank by calling me 'Sir'."

The Lieutenant opened his mouth to reply.

"No. Don't bother. I don't care what you have to say anymore. You're far too slow," Peter dismissed, waving toward the door. "Go. Quickly. Try to find someone who actually knows what they're doing. If I must deal with obfuscation, I'd rather it came from someone competent."

Loki's eyes narrowed slightly at the Agent's behavior and he perked up.

**You're right. Something's off here and he knows it,** Charles agreed.

"Agent Maxwell. If I may-" the other one put in as more personnel marched into the apartment.

"Yes, Sergeant Mathers," Peter cautioned. Loki noted that the use of Sergeant Mathers' name unsettled the older man, but that he was doing his best to hide it.

"With all due respect, we're on the same team here. This alien is wanted for inciting an interplanetary war and destroying a big chunk of Manhattan in the process."

"You give me so little credit," Loki remarked sarcastically, sitting up from his lounging position.

"Shut up," Peter instructed without sparing him a glance. His cellphone beeped twice and he answered it. "Maxwell." He looked off to the right, absorbing whatever the caller was currently telling him. "Yes." He glanced fleetingly at the soldier in front of him. "Yes. ...I understand." He hung up and pocketed his cell, before stepping out of the other man's way with a lazy wave toward Loki.

"Thank you, Quicksilver."

Peter barely acknowledged him, pushing past the Sergeant and out of the apartment.

Loki watched him go, then held his wrists out to be cuffed, gracing 'Sergeant Mathers' with a patronizing expression. _He's a liar. That's what your Agent saw, _he noted to Charles. Mathers snapped the reinforced handcuffs onto Loki's wrists, locking them uncomfortably tight. Loki just smiled wanly up at him, making it obvious that he was humoring his 'captors'.

**You don't think these men were sent by SHIELD?** Charles inquired, mulling the problem over.

_I know that they are attempting to deceive him, _Loki corrected. Mathers and the unnamed Lieutenant yanked him to his feet and began to lead him out. He swept his eyes over Mathers and added,_ this man is not who he claims to be._ He noted that there was something tucked under the back of Mathers' uniform. It was some type of concealed weapon, if Loki's observations on the man's character were correct. He was usually correct about that type of thing. He was drawn out of his thoughts by sounds of a commotion outside, just as they reached the open doorway. The lieutenant shoved him to the ground and Mathers ran outside to assist his comrades. Loki peeked around the door frame in time to see Jane and Darcy through the windshield of the car that his captors were peppering with gunfire. They both seemed surprised, but relatively unharmed, as the vehicle quickly retreated from the line of fire.

"You would attack your own allies," Loki observed scathingly, watching the little car skid around and speed out of range of their pursuers' weapons.

"After them! Move! Move! Move!" A burly, middle-aged man shouted, waving toward the two closest Land Rovers.

"Get up," the Lieutenant spat, dragging Loki to his feet by the back of his borrowed shirt. Or at least, Loki let him think that's what happened. As he had seen on multiple occasions, humans tended to be inclined to forget about his superior mass, and at the moment he was willing to allow these people every opportunity to underestimate him.

**I've been meaning to ask you about that,** Charles said, unfazed by the rough way that they were being shuffled into the back of an unmarked, armored car.** I'm still not very familiar with your capabilities.**

_Could you not simply glean such knowledge from my mind? _Loki pointed out, only sparing the soldiers around him the attention necessary to overemphasize his injured state.

**Technically, I ****am**** capable of doing so, but I prefer not to encroach on your privacy.**

_You live inside my head._

Y**es, but only where you permit me to be.**

Loki's brow crinkled in thought. He was being chained to a bench. The Sergeant retreated, then slammed the back doors shut, leaving the Trickster locked in the back of the armored car with a heavily armed and helmeted soldier. The soldier's head turned as though to scrutinize him, but Loki paid the masked man no mind.

_You seem sincere._

Charles sighed.** I am. I'm trying to help you, remember?**

_You said as much, _Loki replied, feeling Charles' frustration wash over him. _I will permit you access only after you allow me the same courtesy._

**Certainly,** Charles agreed. Loki leaned back against the cool metal behind him, and shut his eyes, running through every minute detail of the new information about his mysterious friend, which he now suddenly knew.

_You certainly could prove useful to me,_ he observed as the armored truck began to move.

**For as long as I choose to,** Charles cautioned. **I'm not a tool that you can simply use for your own ends.**

_I am aware,_ Loki assured him. _The same applies to my faculties. You are a guest within my body. Should you cross me, I will be certain to expel you permanently._

**I won't.**

_ You may collect your payment now, Charles._

Once again, Loki felt that odd sensation as Charles carefully peeked into the specified sectors of Loki's mind. Charles would know that his actions were being monitored now, but Loki figured that at this point, that was more in his favor than playing dumb.

**Oh! An empath!** Charles exclaimed delightedly. **How fascinating! Do all of your kind possess the aptitude or... Oh, I'm sorry; I've said something wrong, haven't I?**

_I don't know whether they do. I was not raised amongst them,_ Loki explained. He wasn't exactly thrilled about not being able to mask his emotional responses from Charles, but he had accepted that as a necessary evil. The consciousness was yet to disprove that the sacrifice was worth it.

**Of course. I'm sorry. That was insensitive of me.**

_ I'd rather that you didn't._

**So... You've been holding out on them. Even during the invasion, it would seem, **Charles noted, changing the subject.

_Naturally._

**Care to tell me why?**

_I should think it would be obvious._

**At a guess, I'd infer that you were minimizing the damage. Most notably to your opponents themselves, but that's odd behavior for an invader.**

Loki tensed, but did not respond outright.

**Oh. ****Oh!**** Why didn't you say anything?**

_To what end?_

**You know, a few things are starting to make a lot more sense now, **Charles remarked.

* * *

Jane watched Darcy flop down on one of the twin beds before her in their hotel room while Thor paced into the room behind her. The other men were lingering on the far end of the suite, careful to give the angry alien a wide berth.

"What next? What do we do?" Jane whispered to herself and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her assistant. A muffled hip hop beat broke through the tense silence. Jane grabbed her phone out of her pocket. "Who could that be?"

"Answer it," Darcy prompted with a limp flop of one arm.

"Hello?" Jane answered.

"You're still with Point Break, right?"

"Mr. Stark? Yes I- How did you even get this number?"

"Genius, inventor, designed your phone, yada-yada," Tony Stark answered airily. "Put me on speaker, would ya?"

"Oh, right. Here." Jane took the mobile phone away from her ear and did as instructed. "Go ahead."

"Hey, Big Guy."

"Son of Stark!" Thor greeted, perking up a bit. "It is good to hear your voice."

"...Yeah. You too. Hey, settle a bet-" there was a faint shuffling, followed by a belligerent sound from Tony.

"We heard from Agent Maxwell that you had a bit of a situation on your hands," the Captain's voice prompted.

"I was getting to that!" Tony commented.

"Yes. I am afraid that it is quite a complex tale..." Thor began, but Darcy sat up and held out a hand to stop him.

"Hold up. We can't afford to be overheard right now," she advised, taking the phone from Jane.

"This line is secure," Agent Romanoff's voice put in.

"Yeah sure. How secure is it? Like secure secure, or... I mean, how many of you are on the line with us right now, anyway?" Darcy interrogated.

"It's just the three of us," Steve replied. "As for the uh..."

"You're safe. I secured the connection myself," Tony added, presumably at the Captain's prompting.

"Even from SHIELD?" Jane questioned tentatively.

"Honey. I'm Tony Stark. They wish that they could tap this."

"Thor? What's going on?" Steve asked, ignoring Tony's indiscretion.

"I have been betrayed," Thor informed the other Avengers. "We returned to your world to stop the Dökkálfar, Lord Malekith from bringing darkness to the nine realms. My brother was injured while aiding us in our attempts to stop him-"

"Whoa, whoa! Wait. Your brother? Not that brother," Tony interrupted.

"Yes. He means Loki," Jane responded a tad impatiently. "Like Thor said, it's complicated. He's not really like that... mostly. He saved our lives. Twice in my case."

"You do realize that he's e-" Tony started to argue.

"Stark," Agent Romanoff warned. "Thor, what happened?"

"We have prevailed against Malekith, but Loki was badly injured in the fight against the Dökkálfar. We had no choice but to leave him behind at Jane's home while we continued the battle," Thor explained. "I was assured by our allies within SHIELD that he would be safe!"

"I'm guessing that's where Peter comes in?" Steve inferred.

"Aye."

"The whole place was, like, crowded with men in black when we got back! They friggin' shot at us!" Darcy exclaimed directly into the receiver. "That is seriously not cool!"

"So he pulled the whammy-" There was a whoosh and the sound of a skidding slam "Ow! That is unsafe piloting!" Tony snapped, there was another sliding sound. "Okay! Okay! Tasha quit it!"

"Are you sure that Loki isn't orchestrating this somehow?" Natasha suggested, sounding as professional as usual, while Tony grumbled about 'what the hell was I thinking not just flying solo in the suit'. "The agents might have fallen under his control."

"Hypocrite. No, never mind! I take it back!"

"I am certain of it. When I left him..." Thor trailed off for a beat, swallowing his guilt. "When I left, Loki was still barely able to stand. His energy reserves were drained to near life-threatening levels. Even if he wished to, I do not believe that Loki is capable of posing such a threat in his current condition."

"That does sound like the perfect time to kidnap him though..." Darcy reflected. "We probably shoulda' seen that coming."

"Okay, guys. Just hold tight. We're already en route to join you," Captain America instructed. "Agent Maxwell hid a tracker on Loki's person. Once we meet up, we can follow it straight to the convoy and intercept him, understood?"

Thor hesitated. It was obvious that he was considering just heading after Loki on his own.

"Thor?" Jane pushed, and the two locked into a short staring contest.

"Understood," he relented.

Jane let out a relieved breath, only for her relief to vanish at his next utterance.

"I will wait for as long as my conscience will allow."

* * *

**A/N:** Yep. This chapter is a bit shorter than the previous ones. I do hope you'll forgive me, perhaps the plot development is worth it maybe? Anyway, thank you all for reading and special thanks to _icanhearthedrums_ for reviewing. Feedback is always welcome.


	6. Kill box

**Chapter Six: Kill Box**

They had been on the road for a long time now. Well, not terribly long, but Loki was getting impatient. He knew full well how unusual it was for Thor not to jump at a chance for action. _He should be here by now,_ Loki observed, swaying when the transport rounded another subtle turn. _Then again__, p__erhaps old habits..._ Loki shook the thought from his head and went back to the task at hand. He had been carefully keeping track of every alteration of course and speed just as Fandral had trained him to do in his youth. Not that it would help nearly as much in this realm, as Loki was still unfamiliar with most of Earth's geography.

_**I've been here before. Although I imagine that the landscape has changed since my last visit, **_Charles reminded him, trying to keep his host focused.

_How long ago?_

_**1962**_.

Loki considered that for a moment._ Considering their fleeting lifespans, Charles, I'm certain that half a century is quite some time in a world populated by mortals._

**Humans**.

_I beg your pardon?_

**They're called humans. At least people like Jane are. Mutants are a persecuted subspecies, and many of them may take offense if you mistake ****one for ****the other****.**** I doubt that anyone will be pleased ****with**** being called 'mortals' all the time.**

_They are all mortals. It's merely a descriptive term- _Loki defended, and heard Charles sigh. The consciousness radiated the impression of a teacher handling an especially stubborn pupil. If he'd had a body, Loki was fairly certain that he'd be pinching the bridge of his nose.

**You're missing the point, and you shouldn't be.**

Loki couldn't help but glare, affronted, in response to Charles' uncharacteristic terseness. The guard sitting in the back of the armored vehicle with him gave him a funny look and adjusted his hold on his weapon.

**You're cleverer than that, **Charles elaborated. **There is no reason for you to be willfully ignorant, especially not in our situation.**

_Then for your sake, I will try to bare in mind these human__s'__ delicate sensibilities, _Loki stated coolly.

**Thank you. Frankly, it's for your sake as well. All of that overtly superior language isn't doing you any favors.**

_Ah yes, because my life would be all mead and Valkyries were it not for my scathing words._

**No, Loki, don't be ridiculous. You'd just sound like less of a twat.**

Loki stared at the opposite wall for a second, then let out a fleeting, but genuine chuckle. The soldier scowled at him, questioning his sanity. _Why, Charles__, y__ou seem to be feeling rather grumpy at the moment. I wouldn't have expected such venom from you mere days ago._

**I know, I'm sorry. That was uncalled for.**

_Don't apologize. I'm rather fond of it. _Loki sobered when Charles seemed hesitant to respond, and changed topics. _You can read these people if I get you close enough, yes?_

**It will be difficult in this state. I'll need you to make skin to skin contact.**

Loki thought it over before replying, _Consider it done._

* * *

Thor was growing more and more anxious as he paced back and forth across the hotel room. Selvig and Ian had already left nearly half an hour ago, and Darcy seemed to have fallen asleep on Jane's bed. Thor reached the foot of the bed and spun his hammer once in his grip, staring out the window.

"Thor," Jane tried for the umpteenth time. He didn't appear to have heard her this time either, simply turning around to walk away toward the far side of the room. Jane let out a sigh and dropped her chin onto the pillow she'd tugged out from under the pile of bags and equipment that Darcy had left on the other bed. Jane let Thor cover the length of the room again, then decided that she might as well give it one more try.

"Thor!"

Thor stopped at the foot of the bed, but he wasn't toying with Mjölnir's handle or staring vacantly out the window anymore. He froze for a moment instead. His gaze dropped to the floor.

"I know that it's hard for you having to wait like this, but you're making the right decision waiting for the others," Jane reassured him. "Loki would probably agree with us; this is the safest way to get him back."

Thor was already shaking his head but he didn't argue outright.

"I know it isn't what you're used to back on Asgard..." Jane trailed off at the sound of Thor's unexpected, bitter-sounding chuckle. Or at least it was almost one. It sounded like it might have been a chuckle in a past life, but the joy had gotten lost along the way.

"That is the trouble of it," Thor corrected, staring glumly out at the dimming sky before him. "This, is exactly what I am accustomed to. Loki was always running off when we were younger. I swore that I would look after him, but Loki was so quick, and far too curious for his own good. He would slip away with no thought of the danger. Sometimes we found him before he came to harm, but others..." Thor looked away, shuffling uncomfortably at some dark memory. "He was captured from under my watch three times. It didn't matter that he was just a child the first time. Nor that the dwarves who'd snatched him from our camp the third time that he was taken saw fit to sew his lips shut before they returned him to us. Father always said the same thing: 'Be still my son. Patience is the mark of a true leader.' He thought it best that we keep one prince safe while he bargained with our enemies over the price of the other's life. My father is known for his great wisdom; I never questioned it."

Jane watched in silence while Thor returned Mjölnir to its place on his belt and sat on the foot of the bed beside her. She had the feeling that the punchline to this one was going to be pretty dark.

"Then I was captured during a battle with some marauders," Thor recalled. "They knew that they couldn't keep me for long. I was a son of Odin, and a warrior of Asgard. I thought that they might sell me off before my father could reach an agreement. I was freed the next morning. A squad of warriors had been ordered to raid their encampment." Thor let out a brief but genuine laugh at the memory. "I woke up and there was Loki, leaning on the other side of the bars with that smirk on his face, and the jailer's keyring dangling off the end of his finger."

"What did you do then?" Darcy asked, sitting up to look at them. She had blinked awake part-way through the story and was now shamelessly listening in.

"I demanded to know what in the Nine he thought he was doing there," Thor stated as if it were obvious. "He was still barely past his first century, and was no trained warrior! He just smiled at me and said 'I think that I am breaking a very stupid rule to save a very foolish prince'."

"Your dad must've been pissed," Darcy noted once she had recovered from the 'first century' remark, which both women thought was worth further investigation.

"It was never mentioned," Thor admitted, missing his friends' discomfort. "When we returned home, Father acted as though it had never happened. I thought it strange, and even mentioned it to a couple of our friends, but they seemed to think nothing of it." Thor looked like he was about to add something else, but stopped at the sound of a knock on the door. A suited up Tony Stark let himself into their suite without bothering to wait for an invitation, with his Iron Man helmet tucked under his left arm.

"Hello campers! Wow. You look glum. I missed something, didn't I?" he observed, coming to a stop in front of Thor and Jane. The Cap and Agent Romanoff entered behind him more quietly. For some reason, Steve paused just inside the room to hold the door open long after the others passed.

"My brother has been kidnapped," Thor reminded Tony in a humorless tone.

"Yeah-" Tony stopped short of whatever unwise remark he'd been about to make in a rare show of self-reflection. "So! What's the plan?" he asked instead, turning toward the doorway just in time to see Agent Maxwell wiz into the room. Steve closed the door behind him without batting an eyelash, already having grown accustomed to the mutant's abilities.

"That is still the coolest thing that I've ever seen," Darcy announced, holding a hand up for a high five. Peter eyed it, but didn't indulge her invitation.

"Thank you."

"Oookay then. I've got your brother's tracking signal streaming to the HUD right now. It looks like they're headed towards a private airfield a few miles north of h-" Tony's lips thinned when Thor immediately stood and pushed past him towards the door. "...here," Tony finished, his dark eyes pointedly locking onto Natasha.

"Thor," the assassin prompted, halting Thor in the doorway. "Are you certain that we should be doing this?" She didn't look back at him. Only turned her head to the right to watch him through her peripheral vision.

"I understand your hesitation. You have no reason to trust that Loki will not turn against you... aside from my word," Thor stated solemnly. "I have already waited too long to find him, so if you cannot join me I would ask that, as my friends, you do not stand in my way." Then he left. The four Avengers in the room regarded each other in tense silence. Steve was the first to move, turning away from the group to follow after Thor. The two SHIELD agents looked to Tony. He let out a sigh and put on his helmet, heading for the half-open window.

"God damn it," he muttered in resignation, pushing the window the rest of the way open so that he could jump out and activate his jets. He bobbed back into view to point accusingly at Jane. "You guys owe me!" Iron Man's tinny voice concluded, and he sped up into the sky without bothering to elaborate.

* * *

Loki looked up from his unblinking scrutiny of the metal flooring when the vehicle came to a halt. The soldier seated across from him got up and retrieved a set of heavy duty chains and shackles out of the footlocker that he'd been sitting on. Loki eyed his new bindings unenthusiastically, but cooperated nonetheless.

**You can still escape those if the need arises?** Charles verified within the displeased Trickster's mind.

_You wouldn't like it,_ Loki rebutted. His wrists and ankles were shackled – twice over in the case of his arms. His forearms were now sporting their own personalized bindings. Even so, the soldier took hold of his machine gun as soon as he was finished, and aimed it at Loki's face. Three more SHIELD operatives were opening up the back of the armored vehicle now. Loki just raised an eyebrow at the overcautious soldier, plastering a fake smile on his face, and shifted his gaze to the three men below. Fake or not, his smile vanished at the sight before him. All thoughts of a sarcastic or scathing remark flew out the window once he had seen the newcomers, back-lit by the setting sun. The two on either side of the opening were covered from head to toe in combat gear just like Loki's escort, but the man in the center was a whole different story.

Green eyes met blue and Loki distantly noted that the other man was just as shocked to see him there. That couldn't be right, though. Not if this was, indeed, a legitimate operation.

"What the fuck is this?" Clint Barton asked in a tightly-controlled voice. His facial expression had just become blank enough to rival the Black Widow's poker-face.

"Volatile cargo," a gruff, southern-accented voice sneered from somewhere out of Loki's line of sight.

Hawkeye turned his head to face the speaker and a muscle in his jaw twitched.

"You got a problem with marching orders, Agent, you take it up with someone who gives a shit," the older man remarked as a SHIELD hovercraft landed behind them. "In the meantime, get the lead out and get this thing." A weathered hand waved into view, to point at Loki. "On the transport before we lose the light."

Agent Barton watched him for another second, then turned his laser-sharp gaze on Loki, as if this was all his fault. "Yes, Sir," he ground out and took hold of Loki's chains, not allowing him the proper time to react before he dragged him out of the cab. Loki nearly-stumbled out into the open, almost tripping and landing face first on the tarmac. Clint paused to run a more discerning gaze over the injured alien, narrowing his eyes.

"I would explain, Agent Barton, but I cannot help doubting that you would believe a word that I said," Loki informed him in a slightly self-deprecating manner.

Clint huffed and shook his head in disdain. "Keep moving," he ordered, and tugged on the chains.

Loki inclined his head, allowing the shorter man to lead him towards their waiting transport. A suited agent, who Loki had not seen before, hopped out of the hover when they were halfway across the tarmac, and Loki made sure to feign dizziness and stumble into him as they passed.

"Ah. No. Don't even try it!" Clint warned when Loki caught himself on the other agent's bare wrist, leaning his forehead on the blond's shoulder as though he were about to feint. Hawkeye grabbed the collar of Loki's borrowed t shirt with his free hand and guided him away from the indignant blond.

**You have to get out of here! Both of you! **Charles exclaimed, relaying a rush of images and half-formed impressions that he had skimmed off of the assassin's mind. Loki went over his options while Agent Barton checked to make sure that he hadn't stolen a weapon. He was understandably surprised to learn that Loki hadn't lifted anything.

"Although you will not believe it, I am no threat to you nor to this realm," Loki whispered, taking advantage of the Avenger's closeness.

Clint pulled back to glare at him.

"These men, are not what they appear."

"Shut it," Clint countered, resuming their path towards the hover.

"I am called Liesmith for a reason, Agent Barton."

"Yeah, because you're a damned liar," Clint snapped.

"I am also quite adept at detecting deception," Loki persisted, slowing his pace as much as he could get away with.

Hawkeye glared more deeply at him being forced to lag by Loki's superior mass holding him back.

"Tell me if I'm incorrect, but I do not believe that you were apprised of this action. Does that not breach your group's protocols?"

Clint tried to ignore him, then gave up a moment later and answered, now matching Loki's quiet tone, "It isn't standard. ...but it isn't unheard of either."

"And considering our history..." Loki pointed out.

Hawkeye looked away then snapped his gaze back to Loki's face. "That isn't going to work. I know that you're full of shit."

The first rumble of thunder rolled through the dark clouds overhead. He looked up at the sound, his expression becoming pensive.

"I was kidnapped from my brother's care. These men opened fire on him and his friends. Civilians," Loki amended at Charles' subtle prompting. "Does that sound like acceptable behavior to you?"

"Shut up."

"This isn't an acquisition, Agent Barton. It's an assassination. The men waiting in that craft plan to kill us both." Another, rumble of thunder accompanied Loki's warning and the lightning that followed sent his monochromatic features into stark relief, highlighting the urgency in his eyes.

Hawkeye stubbornly averted his gaze.

"So be it," Loki muttered to himself and collapsed to lie motionless on the ground, three meters short of their would be killers.

"What the-" Clint began. His expression went flat as he recognized the tactic. Despite knowing that it would be pointless, he gave a couple of token attempts to drag his obstinate captive onward.

Loki didn't budge, other than his arms flopping about in response to Hawkeye's efforts.

"Ahhugh! I fucking hate you!" the assassin shouted, almost losing his balance after he threw his whole body into the last tug. It only moved Loki about a foot and a half. Clearly not worth the effort.

"Might as well grab your weapon now," Loki replied conversationally, making himself comfortable. Clint pulled his gun (in order to shoot Loki in the face with it) but fortunately, that was when the two imposters in the hover realized that they weren't coming and opened fire on him.

"Son of a-" Clint darted away from Loki, returning fire as found himself being shot at from both sides.

"I did try to warn you," Loki called after him, curling up in a protective ball with his chained arms shielding his head. Bullets from human machine guns weren't likely to wound him too much, unless they hit a soft spot—his eyes or throat for example- but they did sting like a motherfucker. After a long and incredibly uncomfortable five minutes while Clint and the assassins shot at each other, and Loki was hit by more bullets than he felt were justified, the airfield went silent.

Loki hesitantly lowered his arms and looked questioningly at Hawkeye squatting behind a shipping container.

He shrugged.

Loki slowly pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, trying to see into the hovercraft. The barrel of a very familiar energy weapon poked out of the opening. It was aimed right at his head.

Loki stumbled into a run, knowing that he couldn't get away in time. There was a whistle of heat and energy. Loki flinched, expecting to be struck down. Instead he felt someone land in crouch beside him, and heard the metallic clang of the blast being deflected by Captain America's shield. Loki did a double take, not quite believing that Earth's mightiest heroes were actually defending him. Then he jumped at the loud slam Thor made when he landed atop the hovercraft. To say that Thor looked angry would be like saying that Raven Xavier's appearance might appear a tad changeable.

"Are you hurt?" the Cap inquired.

"No more than I was before," Loki replied, suddenly embarrassed by how rough and creaky his voice still sounded.

"Captain?" Hawkeye called, making the title sound synonymous with 'are you crazy?'.

"Can you fight?" the Captain asked, ushering Loki over to join Clint.

"You're kidding, right?" the archer demanded.

"I cannot," Loki answered the Cap's earlier question, ignoring Clint's offence.

One of the men who'd been shooting at them hurtled past looking decidedly more broken. Loki winced in distaste.

"Thor looks to be having one of his tantrums," he advised, expecting to be ignored. "You may wish to stop him."

Iron Man landed between their position and Thor's destructive battle with the soldiers, and had to duck another flying casualty. This one at least, was still alive and screaming. "Holy sh- Uh, guys?" Tony questioned.

Captain America scrutinized the chaos then turned back to Clint. "Watch him. If he tries to bolt-"

"I will kill him," Clint concluded matter-of-factly, and Loki gave a little tilt of his head as if to say 'fair enough'.

The Cap hesitated but then stood and headed towards the battle. "Tony, you're with me. We need to get Thor under control."

"Fun," Tony remarked sarcastically, following after him. The man had a point. Thor was being pretty terrifying.

Loki watched in silence while the two humans battled their way through the mass of soldiers, trying to talk Thor down as they went. Loki could feel Clint's hateful gaze boring into his skull, but he had decided it was best not to acknowledge it. They had to get out of here alive first. Then, perhaps, he would face the mortal- human's ire. After all, Clint's grievances with him were all justified, and mostly valid. Loki figured that he probably deserved whatever punishment the man decided to inflict on him, but distracting him would get them both killed. As would engaging him.

So Loki kept his keen eyes on the battle before them, taking in every minute detail and filing it all away for later, just in case. Hopefully, Hawkeye would get the hint and do the same. Loki was an observer first, a Trickster second and, when pressed, a warrior last. Agent Barton on the other hand should be in his element in their current situation. Loki pushed all such thoughts from his mind. Something wasn't right with what he was seeing, but it was taking him too long to place it.

**Something's missing...** Charles agreed, and he could feel the consciousness mulling it over. They were both tired, sore and in Loki's case dangerously depleted. It wasn't so terrible of him not to notice. That didn't stop Loki from instantly berating himself for his novice slip once he'd worked it out. He may have used a few words in that moment that were too profane for the Alltongue to translate. Ones that would have gotten him a tongue lashing from his mother- or a smack on the head from Thor if he'd heard it.

**Loki... **Charles disapproved, still sounding more sympathetic than reproachful. Clint whipped his head around to look at the angry Trickster, shooting the last of the two soldiers he'd been fending off without looking.

"What was that?" he asked suspiciously. Cursing is almost a universal language, as Loki has learned in his travels between the realms. It was clear that although Clint didn't know the precise meaning of Loki's words, he understood Loki's outburst just fine.

"Two of our attackers are unaccounted for. One is armed with a weapon that I have never seen before," Loki explained, closing his eyes in order to concentrate.

"What? What kind of-"

"Quiet."

"Hey! You don't seem to get-" Clint began to argue, but again, Loki cut him off.

"I am trying to locate an obvious threat to our survival," Loki stated, his eyes opening to lock onto Clint's. "I cannot do so if you insist upon distracting me."

Clint stubbornly stared at him for a second, then shut his mouth with an audible click and returned his attention to the fight. The rage and aggression emanating from him was still distorting Loki's perception, but at least it was manageable. It only took a few seconds for Loki's empathic feelers to find the unfamiliar mass of cold, calculating malice creeping up behind them, and he almost grimaced at the feel of it. This man, and he was barely a man in Loki's opinion wasn't just an enemy soldier with his own loyalties. He was a predator. No, a killer. Predators hunt because they have to. Warriors fight to protect those to whom they are loyal. This man, in contrast, enjoyed inflicting pain. The cause that he supported was merely an excuse to fulfil this craving. Begrudgingly, Loki scented the air, more because he knew that he had too than because he wanted to smell the wretch. Hawkeye's attention returned to him, feeling more quizzical than distrustful this time.

"Did you just sniff at me?"

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm smelling him," Loki corrected. "Although, considering how close I am to you, that shouldn't be possible."

There was a beat of relative silence between them.

"Are you trying to say that I smell bad?"

Loki opened his eyes to regard the archer with a condescending look. "No. I am saying that you're human. If you must know. It is he, who smells repugnant," Loki corrected, straightening haughtily. "It isn't natural."

"Great. I get it. Can you just tell me where he's lurking?" Clint deadpanned "I promise I'll get rid of the nasty man and his bad cologne."

Loki squinted at him, ready to shoot back some no doubt scathing rejoinder, when he caught another scent. His eyes widened in the closest thing to shock that Clint had ever witnessed crossing the alien's features. Then he lunged forward, grabbing Clint in a sort of rolling-pounce, carrying them away from the shipping crates and out into the open.

As soon as they'd stopped rolling toward the line of fire, Clint began to try and wrestle Loki off of him, but the Trickster seemed insistent upon remaining on top of him. "God damn it! Get the fu-" The pile of crates errupted in a massive ball of white-hot flames. Clint coughed when Loki's heavier body nearly collapsed, pushing the air out of his lungs as a wave of searing heat rolled over them. The moment that the danger of shrapnel slicing into them vanished, Loki rolled aside onto his back and went still. Clint stared at the wreckage, realizing just how close he had come to being incinerated. It was enough of a shock that he almost didn't notice the soldier creeping up on him.

The lieutenant aimed his weapon.

Clint shot him once in each shoulder before he could pull the trigger. A second more and the sudden silence around them registered.

Most of the SHIELD operatives had been either subdued or were too keen on living to put up a fight, but that wasn't the main cause of the eerie stillness. Thor was no longer raging or even making the slightest sound. He had frozen like a lifelike statue, staring blankly down at Loki's still form on the blacktop beside Clint. Today must be a day for firsts then, because none of the Avengers present could remember ever seeing the thunderer look so somber, and they too had halted at the unnerving sight. Loki didn't react. Loki was very blue. Most of him was anyway. His green eyes stared, unfocused, out of a face half-shrouded by faintly-steaming, blue skin.

"Today was not his day, huh?" Clint reflected in a modulted voice that failed to be as quiet as he'd meant for it to be. He might not care for the blue and white bastard but he also didn't care to become a smear on the tarmac if Thor took offence.

"Is he..." Tony wondered, managing to sound genuinely concerned. This seemed to snap the blond demigod out of his trance, and he hastily dropped to his knees on Loki's other side.

"Loki?" he whispered, thouching Loki's neck, then grabbing his jaw and leaning in to listen for his breath. "Little brother..." Thor gasped out and pulled Loki closer, cradling him against his chest.

The Captain knelt down in front of him. They spoke in successfuly hushed tones for a minute, then Steve stood to face Tony.

"He needs immediate medical attention," Steve stopped short, at war with himself, then continued. "Not from SHIELD."

Tony pulled up his face plate, looked at Thor and Loki, then Clint, then returned his attention to the Cap. "Well, Tasha will be here at any second to fly you guys back to the tower. I can call in an old friend to help us out," he shrugged. "No guaruntees." He took off just as a second hovercraft glided into sight over the red and violet glow of the setting sun.

"Where are you going?" Clint called after him.

"Someone's gotta go check in with Pointbreak's girlfriend," Tony explained before jetting off toward town. Thor watched him disappear into the distance, wishing that he could follow. Then he looked back down at his catatonic sibling and pulled him closer to his chest. No. He needed to stay. He wasn't going to let Loki out of his sight again. Losing their mother had been far too painful already. Thor didn't know if he could stand to lose him too. He wondered idly at the identity of Tony Stark's 'old friend' and why the mortal had looked so certain that he or she could help, despite his caution. It would be interesting to meet this mortal healer.

* * *

**Astral Plane...**

Erik paused and looked up from his book upon hearing an ominous rumble echo through the mansion. Nothing appeared to have changed, but he got up anyway and set his novel ontop of a line of books in the built-in bookshelf to his left.

Another tremor warped the opposite wall into a mass of fluid matter, rippling like the surface of the reflecting pool outside. Erik watched until it settled into a more appropriately solid state of being. Then he made his way over to the far door. It should lead into the bedroom despite its occasional habit of opening into Marie's closet every once and a while for no discernable reason.

When Erik opened the mischievous portal this time, it was misbehaving in a more disconcerting manner. On the other side of the doorframe, there was no bedroom. Nor were there any racks of second hand dresses and pants suits with far too many gloves for a normal woman to need in a single year. There wasn't even the familiar, if uninteresting hallway that this door led to in the reality it was drawn from. No. Erik opened the door to find himself faced with nothing but deep, impenetrable darkness.

It was the kind of blackness that has no right to exist within the extent of a sane man's experience. The kind of shadow that is so dark and inexplicably dense that it allows no light to cross its very precise bounaries. Somehow, without anyway to verify his theory, Erik simply knew that this darkness was vast. It was unnavigable, cold, and empty. He didn't know how it had gotten there. He didn't know what it meant, but one thing was certain. The Void had come to meet them.

* * *

**A/N:** Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to post this. I've been kinda busy this past week, and hey, it was my birthday so go easy on me maybe? *looks ashamed by her own pathetic excuse for an excuse* Anyway, hopefully this was entertaining enough to make up for the delay. Thanks for reading it. Special thanks go to icanhearthedrums and 1noel11 for their lovely reviews. Feedback is always appreciated.


	7. Inner space

**Inner space**

Jane jumped up when she saw Iron Man flying closer over the city on his way to rejoin her. His trademark red and gold armor was scuffed here and there, but considering the dangers of living on Earth these days, he looked surprisingly untouched. Jane decided to take that as a good sign and pushed the window open, beckoning for him to enter through it.

"Jane?" Darcy asked, looking up from the notes that Dr. Selvig was showing her when Jane suddenly backed away from the window.

"Mr. Stark is back," Jane explained just before the man himself flew into the room to land in front of them.

Tony pulled up his face plate and smiled at the gawking pair. "Um. Hi."

Darcy recovered quickly and wriggled her fingers in a half-hearted greeting.

"Where's Thor?" Jane inquired, stepping closer. Tony turned his attention back to the impatient astrophysicist.

"Right. Yes. He opted to stay with Reindeer Games, under the circumstances," Tony explained, ignoring her rudeness.

"The circumstances... What happened? Is he okay?" Jane demanded.

"Thor's fine," Tony dismissed in that deceptively light tone he used when he was minimizing.

Jane's gaze sharpened and she propped her hands up on her hips while, behind her, Darcy and Selvig's listening in became even more obvious.

"He might've gotten a bit carried away there for a minute-totally understandable- nothing big though. He just totalled a hover, and threw a couple of guys..."

"Mr. Stark-" Jane began curtly.

"Tony, please," Tony corrected in the same light tone that he'd been using up until now.

"Tony, what are you not telling me?" Jane persisted.

"It's nothing to worry about," Tony assured her, drawing the others' open interest. "Loki was injured during the battle, and we're taking him back to my tower to treat him."

"You can't just treat him here?" Selvig piped up, sounding skeptical.

Tony stared at him.

"Not that I want him around, but SHIELD did just betray us this afternoon," Selvig amended. "I'd like to know why."

"We can't treat this injury here," Tony admitted, adding at their expectant expressions "He's catatonic."

Darcy let out a loud huff while Selvig stated "Bullshit."

"Kinda multicolored now too," Tony continued, drifting off into his own consideration of the image. "Although, I'm not sure what that really... means. Hey! Do you think they're really weird-looking? Or maybe they're like british sci-fi with all the different faces... That reminds me: nice shirt by the way, to whoever owns what Loki's borrowing."

"Oh! Oh! Is it 'Vote Saxon'?" Darcy guessed.

Tony pointed to her, smiling in confirmation. "So perfect. "

"Yes!" Darcy said, doing a fist pump. Selvig rolled his eyes.

"Thor's going to stay with him then?" Jane asked Tony, bringing the conversation back down to earth.

"Most likely."

Jane nodded once and reached for her polar fleece. "I'm coming too."

* * *

Charles blinked awake to find himself back in his old bedroom in Westchester and frowned. He knew that he couldn't really be there. All the details were just as they were in his real bedroom, but Charles wasn't convinced. It seemed strange for Erik to change the dreamscape. He had every right to. Realistically, Erik was the one who was spending the most time in Charles' little corner of the astral plane, and therefore, was entitled to decide its final layout. Charles pushed himself up into a seated position on the comfy bed and looked around.

"Erik?" he questioned, getting no response. "Erik, are you there?" There was no reply from the mansion around him. Charles took in a deep breath and released it. He didn't have time for this, feeling certain that he was needed elsewhere. The last thing that he remembered before waking up was a fiery explosion. That seemed as dire a situation as any, considering Charles' 'host' and his temperamental biology. Charles pushed the blue and gold comforter off and moved to get out of bed, then froze. He tried again, but there was no change.

"No..." Charles muttered, trying and failing to avoid his rising panic. His legs wouldn't move. He ran his trembling hands over the misbehaving muscles, and blanched. He was paralyzed. Charles Xavier was now paralyzed from the waist down. "This can't be..." Charles whispered then caught himself and squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on calming himself. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder and whoever it was quickly retreated.

"Sorry, Professor, I didn't mean to startle you," a familiar feminine voice apologized as Charles turned his head to regard its owner. She was not what he was expecting to find when he heard Wanda's steady and calming voice. Her dark auburn hair was pulled back in a tight french braid, and the all-black buisiness suit that she was wearing was a far cry from the bursts of color that she had favored during her stay at his mansion. This Wanda's countenance wasn't nearly as self-assured or jovial as he'd come to expect either. Wanda frowned slightly, studying Charles' face before gesturing to his bedroom door. "I heard you shouting from out in the hall. Is everything alright?"

"I..." Charles flicked his gaze over this new, alien version of Erik's daughter and decided to play his cards close to his chest for now. "I'm merely disoriented. There was an explosion. I was expelled by the shock of it."

"Is this one of ours?"

"I'd rather not risk more Agency involvement," Charles hedged, causing a faint smile to quirk the corners of Wanda's mouth.

"I keep telling you: Pete's the spook, not me," she told him, sounding as though she had made many similar assertions in the past.

"I still don't like that word," Charles noted and Wanda shrugged, pulling the folded up wheelchair from its place against the bedside table.

"Do you know where it was?" She tried. Charles watched Wanda unfold the chair and click the seat into place with a sort of haunted resignation. She noticed but misunderstood the cause-as would be expected- explaining. "Sorry, Hank's still working on repairs. You'll have to go low tech for a while longer."

"Of course," Charles acknowledged and did his best to smooth out his facial expression.

"So... The channel you experienced this through, was he our guy?"

"Our guy?" Charles echoed, raising an eyebrow.

"Or girl," Wanda amended.

"I'm afraid it's a tad more complicated than that."

"And you have no location for us to start from?"

"Britain?" Charles replied, climbing clumsily into his chair.

"Cerebro it is," Wanda concluded and steered him out into the corridor.

* * *

Jane stayed silent for the majority of the flight to New York. It turned out that Tony Stark already had his private jet ready to fly them back, just in case. Well, actually, he'd had it prepared to fly him back to New York alongside one female guest of his choosing, but Jane doubted that this was what he'd had in mind. Her silence seemed to bother Tony more than anything else going on at the moment, and he insisted upon filling that silence with his sometimes tactless, but persistent attempts to strike up a conversation.

"We visited a blackhole before we came here," Jane said, deciding to throw the man a bone before he talked himself into yet another hole. The latest, 'did you go anywhere interesting?' question was at least fairly innocuos even if it wasn't well thought out.

"A blackhole, you say..." Tony responded interestedly, his gaze becoming both calmer and sharper.

"I say we visited a blackhole, but well, you know that's impossible..." Jane admitted. "The Dark Elves' homeworld-I'm still not sure how to pronounce the name. It doesn't matter. Anyway, it's nicknamed the 'Dark World' by Thor's people, because the planet isn't orbiting a star, but a singularity. Time flows slowly there because of it, and the sky is always glowing with that low, faded light, like the sky here gets near the end of a sunset. It still seemed like a terrible place to live, but it was sort of hauntingly beautiful, once you got past the barren landscape and all of the sandstorms."

Tony's brow crinkled and he rubbed his chin. "Then, how did you guys get there? I mean I know the demigods love preaching about their 'magic tricks', but how the hell does their rainbow road get around the gravity-well?" he thought aloud.

"I know. I asked about that too. Apparently, Loki's not aloud to explain it to me until we solve the conversion problem, and Thor doesn't know."

"So you're saying that Mr. Wannabe-King-of-Earth pulled the old 'Prime Directive' card and you didn't call him out on it?" Tony countered, taking another sip of his scotch on the rocks.

Jane shrugged. "It seemed believable enough, especially having met Odin."

"Stingy guy, huh?"

"Not so much stingy as... He isn't a big fan of humans. I don't think he considers us to be worth his notice either way," Jane clarified. "We get sick and die too often."

"Hmm. How inconvenient for him," Tony said drily.

"We're probably unsanitary," Jane conceded and Tony reeled back in mock offence, placing his free hand over his heart.

"Why, I'll have know, I am absolutely pristine!" he stated in a posh accent, rolling the 'r' in pristine. Then he glanced down at his hand, noticed the sizable smudge of engine-grease across his palm, and wiped it on his shirtfront with a haughty air. It turned the lighteningbolt on his AC/DC shirt almost completely black on contact.

"Do you believe that time-travel is possible?" Jane asked out of nowhere, surprising herself as much as Tony.

He arched his eyebrows at her in surprise before shrugging it off. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"And if you did. Maybe you didn't travel in time yourself. Maybe you just encountered someone who seemed to be the genuine article, and they knew things, told you about things that were going to happen to you, and those things happened," Jane rambled, becoming nervous as she went. She still wasn't sure if she should be telling anyone about this, and certainly not a near stranger like Tony Stark. "What do you do with that kind of knowledge?"

"Ask about the stock market?" Tony offered flippantly, setting his empty glass down and reaching for the bottle of scotch that he'd set aside without missing a beat.

"I'm serious. What if you could change the fate of the people around you. If you were given the chance to save your future, could you afford not to listen?"

Tony poured his next glass of whiskey, not regarding the subject the gravity or consideration that Jane felt it deserved. "Is my future in trouble?" he asked, lounging back into the plush, white leather of his seat.

"Look at the world around us Mr. Stark-"

"Tony."

"Sorry. Tony. Of course our future's in danger! The question is what do we do about it?"

"Invent time-travel apparently," Tony quipped.

"You're not taking this remotely seriously," Jane noted, looking away out the window in hopes that the fluffy clouds would calm her frayed nerves. They didn't, merely reminding her of the depressing amount of pollution that they were leaving behind in the UK. New York's air quality would only be a minor improvement, even if the pollution was far less visible.

"Is this about funding?" Tony asked after a brief silence.

"Excuse me?"

"Just... people who call me 'Mr. Stark' generally want something from me. That's usually money, unless it's weapons. You don't want weapons."

Jane regarded him with a flat, vaguely affronted expression. "I already have your funding."

"Oh uh, good."

Jane continued to give him the look, making him barely able to keep from squirming in discomfort.

"How's it going then? Working on the-uh..."

"Matter-energy conversion."

"Right."

"Progressing. Slowly."

"Oh. That sounds... Do you need anything?"

"Let's just stop talking for a while, if that's alright with you."

"Good idea," Tony agreed with a tense nod and shifted all of his attention to his drink.

* * *

Wanda waited for the last two students to exit the lift muttering 'goodnight' to them before turning to Logan. He'd been standing in the back with an annoyed expression on his face when the lift had arrived and had almost exited before he saw Wanda. Instead of leaving, he was now lingering on the left side of Charles' chair with his leather jacket draped over his shoulder.

Wanda stepped over to the pannel on Charles' right, but didn't press any buttons. "Weren't you going somewhere?" she prompted instead.

Logan's mood was definitely cheering as he nearly smiled, replying "I've got time."

Wanda crossed her arms, looking stern.

"It's allright, _spatzi_. Logan, won't cause any trouble," Charles assured, looking poinedly at the surly regenerater.

Wanda's eyes flitted to him in surprize at his using the old endearment out loud. She accepted his point anyway, even if she didn't seem to like it. "Fine. He can wait outside this time," she amended, starting the lift.

"Cerebro. You got another one for us Chuck?" Logan said, ignoring Wanda's warning look.

"Perhaps."

"I know that it's your thing and all, but you might want to cut back a bit. It's starting to get crowded around here," Logan advised gruffly. Wanda and Logan both grabbed the wall, anchoring themselves with practiced ease as the lift dropped the last few feet too rapidly, issuing a loud 'clunk'.

"We all know what you think," Wanda stated cooly as the lights flickered out then back on. The door opened halfway and stuck, but she slipped through the opening before Logan could respond.

"Unbelievable," Logan objected, beginning to wrestle the malfunctioning doors the rest of the way open. "He still hasn't bothered to fix this damn thing!"

"I'm sure that he'll get around to it eventually," Charles said, only half listening. He had caught a glimpse of his own reflection in the glass of one of the display cases that held the x-suits. He was old now, his face wisened by years he didn't remember living through. His head was bald, and what hair he had left was cropped short in a wreath of white. Charles glanced down at his hands. They were the same hands that he remembered having, young, unwrinkled. He looked at the reflection. _How odd. Could the explosion have knocked me into the other Charles' body somehow? But why the distorted perception, I wonder... More importantly: how do I g__et back?_

* * *

Jane followed Tony out of the plane and saw a shiny, red (of course) lamborghini glide up to wait for them. The driver got out and took Tony's suit-become-case for him with a smile.

"Welcome back, Sir," he took Jane's backpack and slung it over his beefy shoulder with the same cordial grace when she caught up with the two of them. "Miss Foster."

"Oh. Thank you," Jane said politely.

"Yeah thanks, Hap," Tony echoed, sounding eager to get back home.

"Where do you want the suit, Sir?" Happy verified as he oppened the car door for them.

"The back is fine this time. I'm feeling lucky today." Tony remarked, though neither Jane nor Happy could tell whether it was a joke. "Any news on our patient?"

Happy tucked their luggage away in the trunk before he answered, "Dr. Banner was just starting to check him over when I left. He seemed to be stable from what I could gather on my way out. "

"Bruce is back? Since when?"

"He arrived a few minutes after you headed out. He didn't seem keen on getting involved in any action," Happy explained, steering them away from the airfield towards the Avenger's Tower. "Hey, so why are we helping this guy anyway?"

"It's the right thing to do," Jane stated simply. She thought she saw a spark of amusement flash in Happy's blue eyes, reflected in the rearview mirror. She blinked rapidly, doing a double-take. _His eyes weren't blue when I met him, were they?_

"No offence meant, Miss Foster, but the guy did trash Manhattan. I'm not exaclty looking forward to a repeat performance." Happy's kind, brown eyes looked back at Jane from his reflection and she brushed off her unease. She had been through quite a lot over the past few days._ It was probably just the stress._

"There won't be one," Jane affirmed. For a second, she thought she saw the briefest flicker of blue across that little mirror.

"You sure about that?"

"Even if Loki wants to, we won't let him destroy anything. This time we're ready for him," Tony added, ending the discussion.

"Hey. Whatever you say, Tony. You know I trust you."

The conversation wandered through safer, and more boring territory for the rest of the drive. Mostly between Tony and Happy since Jane had decided to take this last, fleeting chance at rest while she still had it and could barely be considered conscious from that moment on. In fact, she was so out of it that she didn't notice the Sentinel that marched across the road behind them. Nor did she note the way that it stopped for a moment to scan their car with inexplicable interest before carrying on. Tony did notice, but he said nothing, as he was not yet sure what to make of it. Hopefully, it would turn out to be nothing. Jane startled when Tony tapped her shoulder.

"We're here," he informed her redundantly.

"Right," Jane cleared her throat as she sat up. Happy came round to open her door now that she wasn't leaning on it. "Thanks."

* * *

ASTRAL PLANE

Erik looked up from his book when another ripple warped the bookself behind him and dropped a couple books, along with a few fragile-looking trinkets. Raven's antique, china babydoll fell past his left shoulder and he caught it without looking in order to save it from breaking on the floor. Francis' red rubber ball rolled off of its perch and bounced away off the top of Erik's head, as if to spite him. It ricocheted off of the far wall and shattered Charles' half-empty glass, spilling brandy all over their chess game.

"That's enough!" Erik commanded and struck the misbehaving wall which promptly solidified for fear of invoking his wrath. He glared pointedly at the chess table, prompting the liqour to retreat from his treasured chess set. He should probably clean up the mess of broken glass, but he wasn't quite feeling trusting enough in his surroundings.

Erik knew that something had gone wrong. He couldn't tell what it was for certain. Time doesn't flow consistently on the astral plane, so he had no way of measuring the length of time between Charles' visits. He had no contact with Loki's timeframe without Charles, and returning to their own time would mean abandoning his telepath. Most likely to his doom. Erik was not prepared to risk that. Something big was happening. He knew that much. Loki had probably gotten himself into trouble and dragged them both along for the ride, but Erik doubted that he was responsible for this.

Erik looked up with no small measure of disdain when the lamp on the wall past his feet abruptly became a fluffy, grey kitten. It tried to claw its way up the fine, engraved wallpaper with its tiny kitten paws, but only managed to get a quarter of the way up before it lost its grip and slipped haplessly down the wall. It bailed out at the last possible moment, dropping onto his feet, to stare imploringly up at him with wide, tawny eyes.

"Mew!" It squeeked.

"No," Erik denied and opened his book to continue reading, as if there wasn't a tiny grey lamp-turned-three-month-old-cat rubbing adorably at his socked feet. He simply wasn't going to put up with such nonsense. Erik found the last paragraph that he'd been reading and read it over from the beginning. When he got to the point at which he'd left off, however, he was met with another reality problem: the rest of the text had ceased to exist. Erik dropped the tome into his lap and flicked through the rest of the pages. Blank. He went back to his place in the book. The pages were now entirely blank. He fanned through the entire book and back. All blank. He glared accusingly at the lamp. It purred, eying the swish of paper intently as it crouched down in preparation for a pounce. Erik lapped the book shut and the lamp mewed dejectedly at him for usurping its prey. Erik smiled wolfishly, but the effect was ruined somewhat when the tiny creature yawned at him and began cleaning itself. He opened the book back up, considering what this latest development might signify and his eyebrows almost melded into his hairline in response to his discovery.

* * *

Jane and Tony stood side by side in the elevator in awkward silence.

"Listen. About what I said on the plane. I didn't mean anything by it. I just, well, I'm an ass sometimes and-"

"No. You're okay," Jane said quickly, shaking her head at his attempted apology.

"Really?"

"It's been a long day. A few long days, in my case. There's bound to be some friction. I probably could have handled it better."

"Oh, yeah. I mean no. You're fine. You were... fine." Tony turned to stare at the metal doors in front of them. "Yeah, sleep would help."

"Mm hmm," Jane agreed. Thankfully, they were saved from further discomfort by the ding of the elevator reaching their destination.

When they stepped out Steve and Natasha were already heading towards them from the far end of Bruce's lab. It had been cordoned off by a hanging veil of thin, white cotton. Jane could make out two silhouettes waiting on the other side around what was either an elevated lab table or a steel medical bed.

"Dr. Foster," Agent Romanoff acknowledged with a nod.

"Agent Romanoff," Jane returned not unkindly.

"It's good to meet you properly, Dr. Foster," Steve greeted more warmly, offering Jane a hand shake.

"You too Captain, please call me Jane."

"Yes ma'am, if you'd like to go on ahead of us. I think Thor could really use your company right about now."

Jane looked at the muscular silhouette sitting hunched over the medical bed and nodded absently. "Yes. Um, thanks..."

Thor looked up at feel of Jane's hand on his shoulder and she noticed the redness around his eyes immediately. He looked years older than he had that morning. He reached out with the hand that wasn't holding Loki's and pulled her close. Jane placed a kiss on the top of Thor's head.

"You okay?"

"This is my fault," Thor said darkly.

"Hey. Come on, what happened," Jane coaxed, running a hand through his hair.

"I was distracted. I got caught up in the battle and Loki was hurt, just as it happened in Jottenheim. "

Jane and Bruce exchanged a look. Bruce returned to whatever those readings were that he was sorting through, looking extremely out of place.

"Thor, I don't think that this is like Jottenheim. You were trying to rescue him this time," Jane reassured, running her gaze over the prone form lying in the bed before them. Loki's skin had turned completely blue and there were ornate, raised patterns gradually spreading over it as she watched. They reminded Jane distantly of some Maori tribal tatoos that she'd seen during a visit to New Zealand when she was in her teens.

"He doesn't appear to have any physical injuries," Bruce reported, pushing his glasses back up his nose as he straightened his posture. "I mean, sure there are a few bumps and bruises..." he gestured to a scattering of whelts on Loki's arm that were rapidly diminishing. "All healing at an elevated rate. Nothing that would explain these readings."

"So, as far as you can tell-Oops, hello there," Tony interrupted himself, giving Jane's shoulder an apologetic squeeze. He'd accidentally whipped it with the curtain on his way in. "You're saying Rock of Ages is comotose for no reason?"

" I'm not even sure if this qualifies as a coma," Bruce corrected. Tony arched his eybrows at his science bro, then looked at Jane and Thor.

"What do you mean?" Jane inquired while Natasha strolled up behind them to stand at the corner of Loki's make shift room.

"Here," Bruce beckoned for her to join him at the console. "JARVIS, could you bring up those brain scans that I was comparing. Ok, thank you," he caught Jane's eye and gestured to the first of the three brainscans. "Ok, so these two scans, although different are the ones we took of Loki's brain activity when he was last here during," he indicated the one on the far right. "And after the battle."

"And the fabled Hulk-smash," Tony amended, holding up a finger. Thor gave him a whithering look.

"Tony," Natasha warned.

"I didn't think you'd have time to take those," Jane said, unsure of whether to be impressed or creeped out.

Tony shrugged. "JARVIS is good."

"Thank you, Sir."

"Why do they look so different?" Jane asked after a pause, eying the brightly lit areas in the first scan with interest.

"I don't know yet, but look. Here's where it gets really weird." Bruce dragged the third, ongoing, scan to the forefront and enlarged it.

"What the..." Jane muttered and leaned in for a closer look. "That's not a coma."

Loki's brain was lit up like a chrismas tree, every section of his brain had gone into overdrive, hard at work on... something.

"It's not just that," Bruce added, drawing her attention back to him. He waved a hand over Loki's deceptively unconscious form. "Go ahead. Reach out to him, but keep your eye on the scan. "

Jane frowned at him, but did as he'd suggested. Before she'd even initiated any contact, the pattern on Loki's brainscan altered to acknowledge her. When Jane gently grasped his wrist she jumped at a sudden flash of activity in two seperate sections of the scanner. "Whoa."

"JARVIS?" Tony questioned.

"I am unfamiliar with Asgardian biology, Sir."

"How about an educated guess?"

" The main portion of the brain is the one asociaciated with human motor functions."

"Huh."

"Perhaps my brother was attempting to reach back," Thor guessed with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

Jane considered him for a second then reached out to grasp Loki's hand, much more carefully this time. Without warning she felt herself yanked forward to rush out of the room, faster than the eye can track, then dropped just as suddenly onto the soft, snowy ground. She jerked upright with an undignified yelp, beginning to shiver at the intense cold.

She was in a forest full of massive, alien trees. Their bark was smooth, like that of a birch, but black. Their leaves ranging in color from saffron to the same vivid green as Loki's eyes. Jane glanced back and noticed with regret that she appeared to have landed on the only cheery pink flower in the entire place. It was now thoroughly squashed. Her head jerked up at a soft thump from in front of her. Loki had landed, catlike on the roots of a massive tree at her feet and was currently making himself comfortable against its trunk.

"It's about time," he remarked, looking annoyed. "Just don't-"

Jane gasped in surprise and vanished.

"-lose your grip," Loki finished. Letting out a put upon sigh, he fell back against the tree. "Typical."

* * *

**A/N**: I wrote this one right before I fell asleep so it might not be what you're used to. I hope it's still entertaining though. This one turned out to be kind of an in between chapter, but it still has a lot of clues and nerdy references crammed into it. I apologize for nothing. Anyway, thanks for reading this, special thanks to my dearest _ icanhearthedrums_ for reviewing. As usual, feedback is welcome.


	8. The Magician is found in the forest

**Chapter 8: The Magician is found in shadow**

Charles and Wanda looked up from the breakfast table when Mystique strode into the room already carrying a black leather utilty belt marked with the same metal, circled X that marked every X-suit.

"Good morning!" Donny, the electro-sensitive little boy on Charles' left greeted enthusiastically. The contemporary version of Charles' sister flashed the children a fleeting smile while Charles tried not to be disturbed by her nudity. Her yellow eyes flickered up to meet his.

"Were you going somewhere?" Charles prompted with a trace of amusement creeping into his tone. He didn't need his telepathy to know that she was feeling overeager about something.

"You've got a call. It's supposedly urgent," Mystique responded and Charles carefully masked his surprise upon hearing her chorus-like, unaugmented voice. Even with the great improvements that his Raven had made in the year before his time-jump, she had not become quite so comfortable with her natural state.

"Supposedly? It's six am," Charles pointed out, backing his chair away from the table.

"It's Tony," Raven elaborated, sounding unimpressed with whoever this 'Tony' was.

"Stark is up at six am," Wanda remarked, cutting Donny's second waffle into smaller pieces for him. (He wasn't allowed to use metal implements anymore after the 'Sparkle Monster' Incident). "So either he's in serious trouble, or he pulled another inspired all-nighter," Wanda theorized lightly.

_ Ah, Tony __Stark__ as in 'Stark Tower',_ Charles thought to himself. _He must be one of Pietro's Avenger friends, then._

"What are the odds?" Mystique said.

"All-nighter is vastly in th- Janey!" Wanda interrupted herself, batting the twelve-year-old's gummy, extended tongue away from the last blueberry pancake. "You have been warned! ...Mystique, please, don't leave me alone out here."

Mystique smirked and waved at the younger woman before she slipped gracefully out into the hall behind Charles.

"Poor thing, she should have one of the teachers with her by now," Charles thought aloud. "Where is everyone?"

"Hank's in the lab, Ororo probably just overslept. I don't know why you're so worried about it; the twins both agreed to chip in until the danger cleared," Mystique noted, striding around him to fetch the phone off of the nearby sidetable and put it to her ear. "Are you still there, Tony?" Mystique looked up and stepped out of the way when a scruffy, unshaven Sean Cassidy hurried past them towards the dining area. Mystique looked smug. "Here he is." She passed the phone to Charles.

"Hello?" Charles answered distractedly, rubbing at his forehead. His migraine was returning in full force. It must've been caused by that last session in cerebro. He hoped that was all that it was. It would explain his memory loss... Charles squeezed his eyes shut, his forehead scrunching together while he forced himself to focus on the phone call. "Sorry. What was that?"

The more he tried to focus, the worse the pain got. The energetic chatter coming from the phone wasn't helping. Merely adding more sparks of pain to the fire building in his head without communicating any clear meaning. _Yes_, Charles decided, _I'm definitely going to have to ask Hank to take a look over... When is there going to be time for that?_

"Professor?" Mystique questioned, becoming more alert.

Charles drew in a deep, shaky breath and rubbed a little harder at his temple, straining to focus. It was becoming harder fo him to remain lucid.

"Charles!" the shapeshifter snapped as loud as she dared. It would do them no good to frighten the children. When he still didn't respond, she snatched the phone away from him and stated, "He'll have to call you back," in clipped tones before snapping it down on the cradle. She knelt down in front of Charles and her yellow eyes scanned over his face in an almost clinical manner.

"Hey. What's going on?" a sleepy teenager asked, stopping short on her way to the breakfast table. _That one must be Hank's T.A._

"Go get Dr. McCoy," Mystique ordered, blurring in and out of focus. Charles thought that she probably could have phrased that more politely, but it didn't matter. The girl had already run off towards the labs.

* * *

Loki was drawn out of his mental recitation of the Universal Constituents by the sound of feet padding toward him through the crisp snow. He opened his eyes to find Jane leaning over him.

"Oh, good. You're back," Loki drawled, resisting the passing temptation to bat at the long golden-brown locks that dangled over his face.

"Why are you upside-down?"

"I wanted to be," he replied, batting at Jane's hair in retaliation for her pointless question.

She stepped back out of range, and Loki sat up, swinging his legs down from their counterintuitive placement against the tree trunk. Jane ran her eyes over him, looking like he was a new sample she was testing, or he supposed, in her case a pulsar might be more apt.

"And, good evening to you, too," he concluded, brushing a bit of melting snow off of his legging-clad knee. _Where and when did he possibly get new clothes?_

"It's actually mid-morning..." Jane informed him absently. The flurry of snow that slumped out of the tree behind her echoed Loki's opinion of that statement.

"If you've only come here to be contrary, Dr. Foster, I shall return to what I was doing before."

"No. I just... This is weird, " Jane rambled. She paused and did a gradual turn, taking in all 360° of their surroundings, and beginning to shiver. "Where are we?"

"My mind."

Jane spun back around to stare at him, refusing to shiver anymore._ It isn't even real!_

"I assume," Loki added, then looked past her into the darkness of the starlit forest. "It isn't exactly how I left it, but what else is new?"

"What do you mean?" Jane inquired, her brows beginning to creep together in contemplation. Loki studied her for a moment, as though searching for something. He opened his mouth to answer, but his expression closed off at the last second. He had caught himself.

"Have you not heard? I lost it long ago," Loki quipped with one of his obnoxiously familiar, false smiles. It was going to be a lot harder to figure this out with him being so characteristically distrustful.

Jane took in a deep breath and blew out a rather dishearteningly visible puff of white, pacing around the outside of Loki's naturally-formed dais. "Okay. Do you have any idea why we're here?"

"I was hit by an explosion, only to find myself here, unable to wake," Loki recalled, balancing on a narrower root, unhindered by the frost coating its surface. "I assumed that I must have been injured. Was I not correct?"

Jane shook her head. "You've got no injuries that would explain this. Whatever this is..." she said, crossing to one side of Loki's root formation. Then she spun around and started towards the other. "Then again, it's not as though we've seen anything like this before. Humans usually lose awareness when they sustain a shock to their system like you did. They don't gain more."

"It is much the same on Asgard," Loki assured her. Jane reached the other side of the root formation and spun on one sneakered foot to face him.

"What about on Jötunheim?" she asked, pointing at him with one sleeve-covered hand.

"I wouldn't know."

"Really? Not a clue?" Jane prodded, finally giving in to the false sensory impulses and hugging herself. Loki somehow managed to shrug regally, which made her feel crappier by comparison. She thought maybe she should have bundled up before she did this. Her jeans and old worn out flannel shirt were just not doing the trick.

"Mother sent a text on the subject to my cell."

Jane couldn't help but smile slightly at Loki's wording.

"But I did not care to read it." His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized her. "Are you cold?"

"Freezing," Jane admitted. "But it's your mind..."

Loki rolled his eyes at her, then walked down the root that he was balanced on. He unclasped the elbow-length, fur-lined cloak around his shoulders and handed it to her.

"Thanks," Jane shuddered out and hastily wrapped herself in the offered garment, pulling the hood up with one raw, pink hand before burying it in the fur lining. Then she noticed Loki frowning at her. "What?"

Loki looked down at his clothes. "You didn't say anything..."

"I thought you'd noticed, " Jane laughed out, realizing that he was talking about his wardrobe change. "I mean, it's cold out." She sobered, seeing the seriousness in his face. "What's wrong?"

"These are not the clothes of a prince," Loki said, trailing his fingertips down one of the seams over his ribs. They were just barely reminiscent of the contour lines of a corset.

"Oh, well. I didn't know that. I mean they're really nice. It's not like anyone else can see you," Jane commented. They honestly did look nice. They also appeared to be tailored to fit him perfectly, which was sort of weird if they weren't his...

"You misunderstand my meaning," Loki corrected, reaching up to grab the edge of her hood. "They are not meant for a prince, but yes, they are fit for a royal. Look at the design, the embroidery around the clasp. Could you honestly see Thor in something like this?" His last sentence was tinged with a trace of humour. Jane had to admit, Loki had a point. She ran a finger over the ornate green Celtic knots stitched into the leather around the silver clasps. The same fine detail had been put into the lighter more streamlined leathers that Loki wore. The small amount of metal on them looked far more ornamental than functional. Now that she thought about it the whole thing was downright pretty. She couldn't imagine any of the rough, warlike Aesir men that she had encountered on Asgard wearing anything like it. Even Fandral.

"I have not donned such attire since I was a..." Loki paused, shooting her a sidelong glance, "...since I was young."

"What was that pause?" Jane asked, arching her brows. Loki averted his eyes.

"A matter of translation. It is of no consequence."

"When you were..." Jane did a circular hand gesture.

"I don't know your word for it."

Jane was openly unimpressed by that response. "I don't think that was just a trans- Wait. When were you not a prince?"

"It's mostly a language issue," Loki explained. "But gender does affect one's status in Asgard. I was not officially a prince until I claimed that place by the Allfather's blessing."

"You're not a man?"

"Is that any of your concern?" Loki shot back, becoming defensive. "I am a prince! As far as it matters I am a man."

"Okay," Jane reassured the volatile jötun, holding her hands up in a placating gesture. "Fine! That's fine. I was just curious... A couple of things are maybe making a little more sense now."

Loki continued to watch her; he appeared to be expecting a fight. Jane didn't want to know why. She honestly had only been curious about the cultural difference. She certainly wasn't going to hassle him about who or what he was.

"You said that you hadn't worn these in a while... When was the-" Jane and Loki both whirled around to look when the sharp snap of a twig interrupted their awkward conversation.

"Someone's here," Jane whispered. Then Loki was off like a shot, chasing after the phantom. "Hey!" Jane scrambled after him, nearly slipping (twice) on the dais of roots. "Loki! Wait!"

While she ran through the forest after Loki's disappearing silhouette, Jane began to hear voices in the distance. Yes. They were definitely voices, but they didn't quite fit together.

There was a girl's voice calling out, sounding like she couldn't be far past her mid-teens. "Loki! Loki! Where are you? This isn't funny! Loki?" The girl sounded worried.

There was a rougher voice, of a man, easily heard despite the volume of the girl. "Come Little One. Enough tricks! It's time to learn your part in this," he sounded jolly, welcoming. "Now go on, pick up that flencing knife!" Okay. So Jane wasn't so enchanted with him anymore. She tried to catch sight of her quarry but he kept disappearing between trees.

"You wish to please Father? You will do as I tell you. Now eat your dinner and be silent!" It took Jane a second to register whose the latest voice must be. He sounded so young. Not much older than the girl, but she knew that it had to be Thor.

Jane flinched. She thought she'd seen something else moving between the trees. It seemed as if the inhuman phantom was popping in and out of existence from one shaft of moonlight to the other. Jane searched the forest ahead of her. Loki was almost completely out of sight now. _What an asshole!_ And Jane was mainly just following his footprints in the snow.

"I know that I should not feel so, but..." the young Thor's voice again, a whisper on the wind. "I have lost my brother. He left us without reason, and now I must lead little Loki about wherever we go? On hunts? I am to look after hir now, but- Loki does not belong with us..."

There was a clap almost like a whip. Loki's form dropped out of sight on the other side of a massive black and green tree and did not reappear. Jane bolted towards it, trying to outrun the massive form flitting from moonbeam to moonbeam just behind her.

Fandral's voice, barely any different from the way it was now, shouted "No! Wait! Stop!"

Jane slipped on a patch of ice and fell forward onto the solid forest floor. When she pushed herself up off of the ground she found herself face to face with a massive, snow-white wolf. Jane stared at it, her heart hammering in her chest. "Just let go. That's it. All that I have to do is let go of his wrist and you can't hurt me," she told both the impossibly large canine and herself.

The wolf leaned down to look her in the eye, letting out a soft growl. Jane swallowed. The wolf licked it's chops and blew a puff of air out through its snout, then trotted away to lie on top of a mound of roots.

"Well, that was close. I almo- oh, my god!" Jane stared at the figure curled up under the tangle of roots. A wolf's paw half the size of Jane's head hung down over the center of the opening, blocking the familiar cloak wrapped chest.

* * *

Erik gazed out through the wall-length window at the snowy wonderland outside. The mansion grounds had changed to suit the new writing in Erik's book. Or perhaps it was the other way around. Erik didn't know, but he was fairly sure that he was being fucked with. The sky above was as blue as a cartoon background, dispite the big fluffy snowflakes drifting down from the scattering of clouds overhead. The edge of the forest had come a lot closer and the trees no longer looked like any real trees that Erik had ever seen. Their trunks were too dark, and their size too imposing for this world.

Erik turned away from the window to fetch his updated reading material from Charles' desk. There was a manic squeak from the corner and a rustling sound, then Erik's socked feet were being attacked by a grey furball's needle-like claws.

"Ah! Verdämmt!" Erik tried to pull away but the mad little creature had already wrapped itself around one of his ankles. It looked up at him, mouth agape with madness evident in it's wide, feline pupils. "Get off of me you little monster!"

The kitten continued to stare blankly up at him. Erik tried to shake it off but it dug its claws into his pants and bit the top of his foot. Erik briefly debated the pros and cons of kicking an imaginary kitten. "Get off!" Erik demanded, reaching down to clap menacingly over its head.

"Meowrrr!" the feline objected, darting away to hide under the couch. Erik solemnly regarded the kitten's hiding place for a beat, then returned his attention to the book. He decided to read in his seat by the fireplace instead. He opened up to the first chapter and began to read.

_Chapter One: The child is lost in the woods_

_ The little child ran and ran into the shadows of the Dark Forest. Ze ignored the calls of hir big brother's best friend or hir other brother's shout as he gave chase. Ze had heard the truth; there was no place for hir anymore. After a while the boys had to stop to catch their breath. The young huntress in their group marched up to them, demanding to know the meaning of their racket. _

_ "I thought ze was asleep, but Loki overheard us speaking of Baldur. I did not mean for hir to hear..." Thor's next mumbled words were barely discernable, but Sif caught enough of it to slap him for his foolishness._

_ "I hate to say it, but we will see nothing in this darkness." _

_ Loki did not wait to hear the rest of Fandral's advice, taking hir chance to slip away and find hir way to shelter..._

* * *

"So... I don't think you're planning to eat me. Are you?" Jane verified. The wolf opened its mouth in a gaping canine smile. "Oh, good." She resisted the urge to say 'good dog' having a strange suspicion that he might find that insulting, and shifted her attention to the skinny child curled up underneath. His hood had been pulled up, and his wavy, raven locks had fallen to cover one side of his pale face but it was still unmistakably Loki. The kid Loki appeared to be crying quietly. Jane's heart melted and she began to move closer, "Hey, Honey..." she froze in place at a low warning growl from the wolf. "Whoa! Easy. I'm just trying to help."

"Loki?" Jane heard the girl calling again. She sounded like she was getting closer. "Loki? Loki, damn you! Answer me before you catch your death of cold!"

Jane and the wolf exchanged a conspiratorial look.

"Is that Sif?"

The wolf yawned and laid its head back down on its front paws.

"Loki?" Another voice called from farther off.

Kid Loki sniffed and fidgetted a little in his hiding place.

"You should answer. They're probably really worried about you." Jane studied him for a minute while Sif and the others wandered closer. "You can't even see me. Then, what am I even doing here?"

Sif slid gracefully down a small hill behind Jane, and the kid tried to squeeze himself further under the knarl of roots. It was too late though. "Loki!" Sif shouted in surprise, her hand going to her sword as she locked eyes with the wolf.

"No," Loki replied petulantly.

"I found hir! Over here!" Sif shouted to the others, keeping her eyes on the patently unconcerned predator. "Loki, this is no time to argue."

"Why not? He isn't doing anything."

Jane had to admit, the kid had a point there.

"Where there is one wolf there are always others," Sif corrected tensely.

_ Equally valid_, Jane noted.

"Then you should retreat," Loki advised. Jane and Sif both regarded him with incredulity. Although Jane was probably more amused by it than Sif was.

"I plan to take you with me," the warrior countered as Fandral skidded into view behind her.

Loki huffed and looked away.

"Oh dear," the older warrior observed but to Jane's surprise, his hand didn't even twitch towards the crossbow hooked to his belt.

"Listen,"Fandral appealed, resting a hand over Sif's swordweilding hand as he stepped closer. "I know that you're upset. Your brother did not mean what he said. He just wants you safe."

"I don't belong anymore."

"And where will you go?" Fandral asked kindly. Now almost within biting range of the wolf, he still looked only at Loki.

"I don't know. The wolf seems fond of me," Loki said, reaching out to pat the wolf's massive paw and nearly giving poor Sif a heart attack.

"Though I am sure that sounds fun to you now, do you not think that you may miss home?" Fandral persisted. The wolf had finally perked up and ralsed its head to regard him nose to nose. It's seagreen eyes locked with his indigo in a silent battle of wills. Only now did the warrior almost-casually rest his hand on the handle of his crossbow. "I do not envy the task of informing Queen Frigga that yet another of her children has left us behind."

Thor appeared out of the trees with an axe in his hand but Sif waved frantically for him to keep back. He barely complied, looking like he would charge forward at the first possible opening.

Loki eyed Thor, then Fandral then visibly deflated. Made a subtle hand gesture behind his back and Sif gave the slightest nod. She locked gazes with Thor.

"It's time to head home," Thor stated. The wolf snapped at Fandral as if in reply. Its jaws clamped down on his chain mail wrapped forearm and he and Thor teamed up to wrestle it away while Sif dove forward to pull Loki out from under the roots. The boys were lucky. The wolf backed off without much resistance and Thor ran over to scoop his younger sibling up in a tight embrace. "You will never run off like that again! Do you hear me?"

Loki let out a breathless sound that may or may not have been an affirmative. It was all very touching but something else had caught Jane's interest. While the other three were caught up in their reunion, Fandral had drawn away from the group. He pulled a velvet-wrapped parcel out of the folds of his dark green cloak and slipped out of sight behind a rocky outcropping.

Jane took note of the golden symbol stitched into the fabric before standing to follow him. When she rounded the light grey boulder, however, she was met with a wall of utter blackness. Jane eyed the nothingness for a moment then let go of Loki's hand, returning to the waking world. She had been shown that scene for a reason. Something that Loki's subconscious was trying to share with them, and she'd bet her favorite telescope that that package had something to do with it.

* * *

**A/N: **Ok, so Loki definitely ended up dominating this chapter. I hope that isn't a bad thing. Honestly, I'm still just happy to finally start touching on the conspiracy story-arc. I imagine that those of you who've already read the first two volumes might have a head start on figuring out Charles' bit too, but I guess that's for the best. Anyway, thanks for reading. Special thanks to _icanhearthedrums, janieceal,_ and _1noel11_ for reviewing. You know I always love to hear from you, Dear Readers!


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